Professor of Obstetrics, who has been convicted of sexually abusing his female students, is included in the official list of experts of the Court of First Instance Thessaloniki.

This was found when he was appointed to hear a medical malpractice case in which doctors have been sued. The event has caused reactions in the circle of his former students, who had appealed to the Justice before he became a giant the MeToo movement and while another lawsuit is pending against him, again by female students.

The professor was finally condemned by the Three-member Misdemeanor Appeal Court of Thessaloniki in prison for 24 months, with a three-year suspension, for sexually abusing two of his female students. The court acquitted him of the third case reported, due to the statute of limitations, as it turned the offense into an offense of sexual dignity, for the prosecution of which a summons was required. The complaints repeated by many female students in the audience of the Court of Appeal related to the period 2015-16, when, according to the statements, the professor offered a free gynecological examination, but there he molested the female students, as accepted by the appellate court, despite the defendant’s refusal. In fact, the case came to justice several years later, after an anonymous letter to the internal affairs of ELAS.

The complainants were surprised to be informed ahead of time that the convicted doctor, apart from the fact that no measure has been imposed against him by the medical association, is also included in the official list of judicial experts. This is the list of the Court of First Instance, which includes scientists from all specialties who are invited in various cases to carry out an independent investigation, on which the judgment of each court is based. “It is contradictory for someone who has been convicted of something to continue doing the same thing. And most women, because he is a public expert, don’t know what has happened or why he has been convicted. It is mandatory for them to be examined by the expert, they cannot refuse it”, the advocate supporting the category of female students, Panagiotis Logginidis, commented to Voria.gr.

Reaction of the Court of First Instance

The Court of First Instance of Thessaloniki was informed that the finally convicted professor is on the list of official experts. Court administration at her request requested the modification of the list of experts, but the court called upon to decide rejected the application and kept the doctor on the list. The Court of First Instance specifically decided that the professor has not been irrevocably convicted, i.e. by a decision of the Supreme Court where he has apparently appealed, therefore his exclusion would mean the violation of the presumption of his innocence and the relevant provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights, according to the legal thinking developed in his decision.

“For the exclusion of a person from the list of experts, due to his conviction for a felony or a misdemeanor, the conviction must, in accordance with the provisions of the present legal opinion, be irrevocable, because otherwise the presumption of innocence established by article 6 is violated II of the ECHR, which prevents the imposition of a penalty, even an incidental one, before the final conviction”, the court’s decision states. However, in the relevant article of the Code of Civil Procedure concerning the appointment of experts, it is not made clear which of the convicted persons are excluded. “My objection is that the management of the Court of First Instance, the Court of First Instance itself, should at least temporarily suspend his participation from the list, if he considers that he must wait for the irrevocable decision. Under no circumstances can a man after two convictions examine women. This is where the gap in law can be seen”, noted Mr. Longinidis speaking to Voria.gr.

The case with the student complaints against the Midwifery professor is also pending at the Appeal Court of Thessaloniki. Another four former students have sued him for a felony, specifically for abusing an incapacitated person to resist sexual acts, even proposing eight more of their colleagues as witnesses. They believe that during the free gynecological examination they did not have the opportunity to react and fell victim to their teacher. The lawsuit was originally filed by the District Attorney, on the grounds that the offense described is a misdemeanor, therefore time-barred. However, after an appeal, the case file has been in the hands of the Appellate prosecutor for more than a year, who has not yet made a decision.