TSALIKIDIS AND OTHERS v. GREECE JUDGMENT 21 Mr Tsalikidis’ body should have been sent to laboratories abroad, which are better equipped than the laboratories in Greece for the identification of drugs or poison in a deceased’s body. A forensic examination of the place of death and a reconstruction of the death should have been ordered to shed light on the circumstances of death and in particular to examine whether the body would have crashed against nearby furniture and therefore suffered injuries. A new forensic report should also have been drawn up by an independent coroner so as to clarify the inconsistencies and discrepancies observed between the other reports, in particular whether the rope mark was obliquely directed or encircled the deceased’s cervical spine. A DNA test and a technical expert report on the knot, which had been preserved, should have been ordered so as to establish whether there were any other person’s fingerprints on it and whether the deceased would have been capable of tying such a complex knot. Additionally, phone operator V. should have been asked to submit the minutes of the meeting that had allegedly taken place the day preceding Mr Tsalikidis’ death and representatives of the company should have been requested to officially confirm that he had been the employee responsible for accepting on behalf of their company the legal software provided by company E. which had been used to activate the program of wiretapping. Lastly, the technical advisors S.K. and Th. V. should have been summoned to testify and cross-examined along with coroners G.D.L. and F.K., and fresh witness statements should have been taken in respect of the new evidence acquired. 70. The applicants also contested the conclusions of Dr Ch.S. contained in the document adduced by the Government in corroboration of their arguments (see paragraph 81 below). They maintained that this coroner had not been impartial, as she had initially been asked to draw up a report as an independent expert following the exhumation and at a later stage had acted as scientific counsellor on behalf of the Government for the purposes of the current application. 71. In the light of the above, the applicants argued that the domestic authorities had failed to take due account of the new evidence and to order further investigative measures which would have shed light on the circumstances surrounding Mr Tsalikidis’ death. The steps taken in the new investigation indicated that there had been several shortcomings in the initial investigation, some of which could have been rectified during the supplementary investigation; however this did not happen. The public prosecutor had chosen to archive the case file without having taken any further investigative steps and without having provided adequate reasoning for his decision. 2. The Government’s submissions 72. The Government claimed that a fully effective, thorough and prompt investigation had taken place into the circumstances surrounding