HOVHANNISYAN v. ARMENIA JUDGMENT 9 B. Merits 1. The parties’ submissions (a) The applicant 43. The applicant argued that H.A. and A.K. had intentionally inflicted harm on her. As a result of their violence she had sustained bodily injuries, received multiple bruises, and lost consciousness. She had been unable to work for fourteen days. Her bodily injuries had been confirmed by the expert report of 18 January 2012. Since no criminal proceedings had been initiated, no proper investigation had been conducted and no one had been questioned. Some witnesses had given explanations during the inquiry but they could not be considered as sworn statements since they had not been given under oath. The eyewitnesses would more likely have given true statements had they been questioned under oath. (b) The Government 44. As to the substantive aspect of Article 3, the Government pointed out that the circumstances of the current case had not included any elements of torture and that any interpretation of the facts as implying torture was clearly exaggerated and misconstrued. Nor had there been any intention or motive on the part of the applicant’s superiors to ill-treat her. Their only intention had been to solve, in a civilised manner, a conflict between colleagues over a performance review. The argument between the applicant and her supervisor had not caused any actual bodily injury or intense physical or mental suffering, had not raised any objective feelings of fear or inferiority, and could not be said to have humiliated or debased the applicant. 45. There was nothing in the case file to support the applicant’s allegations of ill-treatment. All the material in the present case actually suggested the opposite: H.A. and A.K. had only been trying to calm the applicant down, as she had been shouting and using very inappropriate language. After a thorough, objective and comprehensive inquiry, her accusations towards H.A. and A.K. had been found to be contradictory and unfounded and by no means credible. She had not reported the matter to the police until four days later. Furthermore, she had described the events in a contradictory manner and had failed to provide any psychological, medical or other expert evidence that could substantiate the alleged physical and mental impact on her. It could not be established “beyond reasonable doubt” that her injuries had been caused by her superiors. There was no evidence that the health-related issues she had allegedly been suffering from related to the impugned events since she had not undergone a medical examination until five days after the incident. The injuries had thus not been sufficiently serious to reach the threshold for Article 3 of the Convention to apply.