14 GÄFGEN v. GERMANY JUDGMENT had shaken him, causing him to hit his head against a wall, or had once hit him on the chest, allegedly causing a haematoma, such physical damage would be too minor to necessitate the payment of compensation. Furthermore, the violation of his human dignity by the threat of torture did not warrant the payment of compensation since the applicant had obtained sufficient satisfaction for this by the exclusion of his statements as evidence and the criminal conviction of the police officers. 57. On 19 January 2008 the Federal Constitutional Court, allowing a constitutional complaint by the applicant, quashed the Court of Appeal’s decision and remitted the case to that court. It found that in refusing to grant the applicant legal aid, the Court of Appeal had violated the principle of equal access to court. In particular, that court had speculated that the applicant would not be able to prove that the threat to torture him had led to mental damage. In addition to that, it was not obvious that the physical injuries the applicant claimed to have suffered in the course of the interrogation, during which he had been handcuffed, could be considered to be of minor importance. Moreover, the question whether the violation of the applicant’s human dignity necessitated the payment of damages despite the satisfaction he had already obtained was a difficult legal question on which no precedent existed in a judgment of a court of final instance. It should, therefore, not be determined in an application for legal-aid proceedings. 58. The remitted proceedings are still pending before the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court. II. RELEVANT DOMESTIC, PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL COMPARATIVE LAW AND PRACTICE AND A. Provisions of domestic law 1. The Basic Law 59. Article 1 § 1 of the Basic Law, on the protection of human dignity, reads as follows: “Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all State authorities.” 60. Article 104 § 1, second sentence, of the Basic Law, on the rights of persons in detention, provides: “Persons taken into custody may not be subjected to mental or to physical illtreatment.”