The Plaintiff alleges acts constituting torture wherein the Defendant’s officers jointly assaulted him using their boots to pound on his chest until he began to vomit blood. There is therefore need to clarify the distinction between torture and physical assault. A party alleging torture must prove a high minimum of severity to fall within the meaning of ‘torture’ under Article 5 of the African Charter. On the other hand, physical assault falls within other acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment which do not amount to torture. In AV, the United Kingdom judgment of 23 September 1998, Reports 1998, European Court of Human Rights in considering whether a violation meets the requirement of Article 3 of the European Convention which is similar to Article 5 of the African Charter held that: Ill-treatment must attain a minimum level of severity if it is to fall within the scope of Article 3. The assessment of this minimum is relative: it depends on all the circumstances of the case, such as the nature and context of the treatment, its duration, its physical and mental effects and, in some instances, the sex, age and state of health of the victim. In Loayza-Tamayo V. Peru Judgment of September 17, 1997, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights held that the violation of the right to physical and psychological integrity of persons is a category of violation that has several gradations and embraces treatment ranging from torture to other types of humiliation or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment with varying degrees of physical and 10