SELMOUNI v. FRANCE JUDGMENT 22 Bobigny public prosecutor’s office, which had subsequently requested, on 22 February 1993, that an investigation be opened. The Government also noted that although the handling of the proceedings had not been uniform, since periods of special diligence had alternated with periods of inactivity, the police officers had nonetheless ultimately been committed for trial at the Versailles Criminal Court. The Government pointed out that if the police officers were convicted, the applicant could, in his capacity as a civil party, claim compensation for the damage he had sustained. From that point of view, his application to join the criminal proceedings could not therefore be deemed to be “ineffective” within the meaning of Convention case-law. The Government argued that the present case was distinguishable from the Mitap and Müftüoğlu v. Turkey case referred to by the Commission in its decision on admissibility (applications nos. 15530/89 and 15531/89, decision of 10 October 1991, Decisions and Reports (DR) 72, p. 169) and the cases of Tomasi v. France (application no. 12850/87, decision of 13 March 1990, DR 64, p. 128) and Ringeisen v. Austria (judgment of 16 July 1971, Series A no. 13), in which it had been acknowledged that the last stage of domestic remedies had been reached shortly after the lodging of the application but before the Commission had been called upon to decide on admissibility. Not only had the Commission not followed its usual caselaw but, furthermore, the Mitap and Müftüoğlu case had concerned the length of the proceedings and not an alleged violation of Article 3. The Government submitted that the excessive length of time taken to examine the applicant’s complaint could not ipso facto lead to a finding that the remedy was ineffective; that due consideration should be given in the present case to the fact that the police officers in question were having to answer for their acts before the national criminal courts; and that the application brought before the Court was therefore premature. 72. The applicant replied that he had satisfied the obligation to exhaust domestic remedies. He observed that he had informed the officer of the National Police Inspectorate at the end of their interview on 1 December 1992 that he was lodging a complaint. He added that, owing to the failure of the public prosecutor’s office at the Bobigny tribunal de grande instance to take any action, he had on 1 February 1993 lodged a criminal complaint with the senior investigating judge together with an application to join the proceedings as a civil party. His complaint and application had been registered on 15 March 1993. Thereafter, the applicant alleged, he had had no remedy with which to expedite the proceedings. He referred to the Aksoy v. Turkey case (judgment of 18 December 1996, Reports 1996-VI) to support his submission that “there is no obligation to have recourse to remedies which are inadequate or ineffective”, maintaining that that definitely applied in the instant case.