SELMOUNI v. FRANCE JUDGMENT 28 and by the Versailles Court of Appeal, excepting the sexual assaults (see paragraph 65 above). 89. Accordingly, the Court is of the opinion that, with regard to the complaint submitted to it, those facts can be assumed to have been established. 90. The Court considers, however, that it has not been proved that Mr Selmouni was raped, as the allegation was made too late for it to be proved or disproved by medical evidence (see paragraph 54 above). Likewise, a causal link could not be established on the basis of the medical report between the applicant’s alleged loss of visual acuity and the events which occurred during police custody (see paragraph 46 above). 2. The gravity of the treatment complained of 91. The applicant submitted that the threshold of severity required for the application of Article 3 had been attained in the present case. He considered that the motive for the police officers’ actions had been to obtain a confession, as he had been informed against and the police officers had been convinced that he was guilty even though the body search and the search of his hotel room at the time of his arrest had not yielded any evidence. He asserted that, aged 49, he had never been convicted or even arrested and that he stood by his refusal to admit any involvement in the drug trafficking being investigated by the police. He contended that the police officers had deliberately ill-treated him, given their constant questioning by day and, above all, by night. The applicant submitted that he had been subjected to both physical and mental ill-treatment. In his view, it was well known that such police practices existed, and that they required preparation, training and deliberate intent and were designed to obtain a confession or information. He argued that, in the light of the facts of the case, the severity and cruelty of the suffering inflicted on him justified classifying the acts as torture within the meaning of Article 3 of the Convention. 92. The Commission considered that the blows inflicted on the applicant had caused him actual injuries and acute physical and mental suffering. In its opinion, that treatment must have been inflicted on him deliberately and, moreover, with the aim of obtaining a confession or information. In the Commission’s view, such treatment, inflicted by one or more State officials and to which medical certificates bore testimony, was of such a serious and cruel nature that it could only be described as torture, without it being necessary to give an opinion regarding the other offences, in particular of rape, alleged by the applicant. 93. In their memorial the Netherlands Government agreed with the Commission’s assessment of the facts in the light of the provisions of the Convention, and with its conclusion.