GÄFGEN v. GERMANY JUDGMENT 21 1. Whether the impugned treatment was contrary to Article 3 (a) The Chamber judgment 79. The Chamber considered that the applicant had been threatened by detective officer E. on the instructions of the deputy chief of the Frankfurt am Main police, D., with physical violence causing considerable pain in order to make him disclose J.’s whereabouts. It found that further threats alleged by the applicant or alleged physical injuries inflicted during the interrogation had not been proved beyond reasonable doubt. Having regard to all the circumstances of the case, the Chamber characterised this threat of violence as inhuman treatment prohibited by Article 3. (b) The parties’ submissions (i) The applicant 80. The applicant claimed that during his interrogation by detective officer E. on 1 October 2002, he had been subjected to treatment prohibited by Article 3. Detective officer E. had threatened that “intolerable pain the likes of which he had never before experienced” would be inflicted on him if he did not disclose J.’s whereabouts. He had threatened that this pain would be inflicted without leaving any traces and that an officer, specially trained in such techniques, was en route to the police station in a helicopter. To underpin the threat, E. had imitated the sound of the rotating blades of a helicopter and had described the pain of the torture in graphic detail. The applicant alleged that concrete measures had in fact been taken at that time in that a police doctor had subsequently confirmed that she had been prepared to be present during the torture so as to prevent the applicant from losing consciousness or the procedure from leaving any traces. 81. The applicant further alleged that he had been threatened with sexual abuse in that he would be locked up in a cell with two large “Negroes” who would anally assault him. Physical injuries had also been inflicted on him during the interrogation. E. had hit him several times on the chest, causing bruising, and on one occasion had pushed him, causing his head to hit the wall. He produced two medical certificates of 4 and 7 October 2002 issued by police doctors to support this claim (see paragraph 21 above). He claimed that, afterwards, he had been taken to Birstein against his will and had been obliged to walk without shoes through woods to where he had left the corpse and, at the command of the police, he had had to point out its precise location. He had also been forced to disclose other evidence on the return journey from Birstein. He claimed that he had been threatened by the police at a time when they had already been aware that J. was dead and had therefore been forced to incriminate himself solely in order to further the criminal investigations against him.