36 GÄFGEN v. GERMANY JUDGMENT criminal offences (see paragraph 50 above). D. was later transferred to the Police Headquarters for Technology, Logistics and Administration and was appointed its chief (see paragraph 52 above). In this connection, the Court refers to its repeated finding that where State agents have been charged with offences involving ill-treatment, it is important that they should be suspended from duty while being investigated or tried and should be dismissed if convicted (see, for instance, Abdülsamet Yaman, cited above, § 55; Nikolova and Velichkova, cited above, § 63; and Ali and Ayşe Duran, cited above, § 64). Even if the Court accepts that the facts of the present case are not comparable to those at issue in the cases cited herein, it nevertheless finds that D.’s subsequent appointment as chief of a police authority raises serious doubts as to whether the authorities’ reaction reflected, adequately, the seriousness involved in a breach of Article 3 – of which he had been found guilty. 126. As to the additional requirement of compensation in order to remedy a breach of Article 3 at national level, the Court observes that the applicant availed himself of the possibility of seeking compensation for the damage sustained as a result of the violation of Article 3. However, his application for legal aid to bring such official liability proceedings, following a remittal, has itself, apparently, been pending for more than three years and, consequently, no hearing has yet been held and no judgment given on the merits of his claim. The Court would observe that, in practice, it has made awards under Article 41 of the Convention in respect of nonpecuniary damage in view of the seriousness involved in a violation of Article 3 (see, among many other authorities, Selçuk and Asker, cited above, §§ 117-18). 127. In any event, it considers that appropriate and sufficient redress for a Convention violation can only be afforded on condition that an application for compensation remains itself an effective, adequate and accessible remedy. Excessive delays in an action for compensation, in particular, will render the remedy ineffective (compare, mutatis mutandis, Scordino (no. 1), cited above, § 195, in respect of compensation for non-compliance with the “reasonable time” requirement of Article 6). It finds that the domestic courts’ failure to decide on the merits of the applicant’s compensation claim for more than three years raises serious doubts as to the effectiveness of the official liability proceedings in the circumstances of the present case. The authorities do not appear to be determined to decide on the appropriate redress to be awarded to the applicant and thus have not reacted adequately and efficiently to the breach of Article 3 at issue. 128. The Court further notes that in the applicant’s submission, redress for the authorities’ breach of Article 3 could only have been granted by also excluding, at his trial, all items of evidence obtained as a direct result of the violation of that Article. It observes that in its case-law as it stands, it has generally considered compliance with the requirements of an investigation