Dimitrios Rovithis

Curator of the Laboratory of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology at the University of Thessaloniki. Present as forensic expert at the crime scene investigations in Mikra and the Municipal Hospital (1959).

In 1964, he conducted a blood test on Aristidis Pagratidis while he was already imprisoned in Eptapyrgio for the Orphanage assault, following an order by prosecutor Ioannis Kiousis. The blood of Pagratidis was identified by his laboratory as type O Rh positive (+). He stated in a written report to the prosecutor that the original identification (1959) of the murderer’s blood type in the Mikra crime by the Athens forensic expert Emmanouil Iliakis was inaccurate (the blood had been identified as type O Rh negative (-)). Due to this disagreement between the two forensic experts, the defense of Pagratidis repeatedly requested both scientists be summoned to court, as the blood type found at the Mikra crime scene —which belonged to neither victim— was a highly critical piece of evidence. These requests were never granted, even though the presiding state prosecutor Michalis Sgouritsas also agreed with them.