GÄFGEN v. GERMANY JUDGMENT 27 99. The Court further observes that in the applicant’s submission, he was again subjected to treatment prohibited by Article 3 in that he was obliged to walk without shoes through woods in Birstein and was directly forced to point out the precise location of the corpse and to disclose other items of evidence. These allegations are likewise contested by the Government. The Court notes that, according to the findings of the domestic authorities, the applicant, following his interrogation, had agreed to accompany the police officers to the pond where he had hidden J.’s corpse (see paragraph 17 above). There is nothing to indicate that the applicant was verbally threatened en route to Birstein by any of the police officers present in order to make him indicate the precise location of the corpse. However, the question as to whether and to what extent the disclosure of evidence by the applicant in Birstein was causally connected to the threats issued at the police station remains a question to be determined under Article 6. In view of the fact that the medical certificates contained a diagnosis of swellings and blisters on the applicant’s feet (see paragraph 21 above), the Court finds that his allegation that he had been obliged to walk without shoes is not entirely without foundation. However, the domestic courts, having examined the evidence before them, did not consider this allegation – which the applicant does not appear to have mentioned from the outset in the domestic proceedings either – to have been proven (see, in particular, paragraph 26 above). The cause of the injuries was not established by the examining doctors. In these circumstances, the Court does not consider the applicant’s allegations in this regard to have been proven beyond reasonable doubt. 100. In view of the foregoing, the Court considers it established that the applicant was threatened in the morning of 1 October 2002 by the police with being subjected to intolerable pain in the manner set out in paragraphs 94 to 95 above in order to make him disclose J.’s whereabouts. (β) Legal qualification of the treatment 101. The Court notes the Government’s acknowledgment that the treatment the applicant was subjected to by E. violated Article 3 of the Convention. However, having regard to the serious allegations of torture made by the applicant and the Government’s claim of loss of victim status, the Court considers it necessary to make its own assessment of whether this treatment can be said to have attained the minimum level of severity to bring it within the scope of Article 3 and, if so, how it is to be classified. Having regard to the relevant factors indicated in the Court’s case-law (see paragraphs 88-91 above), it will examine, in turn, the duration of the treatment to which the applicant was subjected, its physical or mental effects on him, whether it was intentional or otherwise, its purpose and the context in which it was inflicted.