ATHENS, August 6, 2008 (AFP) - Controversial Greek sprinter Ekaterina Thanou will not attend an International Olympic Committee (IOC) disciplinary hearing in Beijing on Thursday which will rule on whether she can compete in the upcoming Olympic Games.

'Thanou will not attend the committee hearing and neither will her legal team. We will send a memo instead,' her lawyer Nikos Kollias told AFP in Athens on Wednesday.

The IOC insists on examining the right of Thanou, silver medallist in the 100 metres at the 2000 Games, to compete in Beijing because of a doping test controversy on the eve of the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

The 33-year-old rocked the last Games when she and fellow Greek sprinter Kostas Kenteris failed to turn up for a dope test and claimed they had a motorcycle accident which landed them in hospital.

Both later turned in their accreditation and were provisionally banned in 2004 by athletics' world governing body the IAAF, sitting out competition for more than two years before eventually admitting to having missed three dope tests prior to the Athens Olympics.

The IOC says it has summoned Thanou regarding charges of 'disrepute and prejudice caused to the Olympic Movement' and also over issues regarding an ongoing perjury trial in Greece pertaining to the alleged motorcycle accident.

But her legal team has countered by saying the IOC 'appears to have a personal vendetta' against Thanou as several other athletes who actually tested positive and served bans will be competing in Beijing.

'We are being asked to answer charges that are vague. They should at least tell us which exact rules she is accused of breaking,' Kollias said.

'Being called to a hearing without being able to prepare counter-arguments is contrary to all legal procedure.'

He added: 'The IOC has no jurisdiction to judge the court procedure in Greece. There is no conviction there, and in all likelihood she will be acquitted.'

Thanou is in line to inherit the gold stripped from Marion Jones after the American admitted to being doped at the 2000 Games in Sydney, but the IOC has repeatedly postponed decisions on medal redistribution from that race.