Prof. Dr. Demetra Fr. Sorvatzioti is Professor of Criminal Law & Evidence, and Criminology at the University of Limassol, where she also serves as Vice-Rector for International Academic Affairs and Research and Chair of the Department of Law. She is a leading scholar in comparative criminal legal studies, with expertise in criminal law, criminal procedure, and criminal evidence. Her work focuses on evidence, sentencing, fair trial rights, and comparative criminal justice, including the evidentiary practices of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

She holds a PhD in Law from Queen’s University, Canada (international criminal evidence), and a PhD in Criminology from Panteion University, Greece (poverty and criminal procedure). She previously held senior academic positions at the University of Nicosia, including Head and Associate Head of the Law Department and Director of the Institute of Criminal Studies and Criminology.

She has practiced as a trial lawyer in Greece and Cyprus since 1990 and has served as an expert witness on continental criminal procedure before UK courts. Her research has informed judicial reasoning and public policy. Notably, her analysis shaped the first Supreme Court of Cyprus ruling recognising gambling addiction as fresh evidence and a mitigating factor in sentencing — the landmark Kyrkou case.

Her influential book The Poverty of Justice offers a critical analysis of poverty, procedural protections, and fair trial rights within the continental criminal justice tradition, using the Greek system as its primary case study and demonstrating how poverty functions as a structural identity influencing the criminal process and trial outcomes.

Her international appointments include long-standing collaborations with Fair Trials International, the Clooney Foundation for Justice (TrialWatch® Expert Panel), and the International Centre of Comparative Criminology (CICC) at the University of Montreal. She also holds key roles in Canadian legal associations, including service on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Association of Drug Treatment Court Professionals, and in the Association of Justice and Treatment Professionals (AJTP) and its Drug Treatment Court Community of Practice. Her work advances the development of the pilot Drug Treatment Court model in both Cyprus and Greece. At the national governmental level, she has been appointed by the Ministries of Justice of Cyprus and Greece to multiple committees on criminal justice reform, anti-crime strategy, young offenders, human rights, and high-profile investigative mandates.

Her research has been published internationally and presented at leading institutions in Canada, the U.S., Europe, and in international criminal justice forums.