İLHAN v. TURKEY JUDGMENT 31 JOINT PARTLY DISSENTING OPINION OF JUDGES BONELLO, TULKENS, CASADEVALL, VAJIĆ AND GREVE For the following reasons, we do not share the majority's opinion that there has been no violation of Article 2 of the Convention in this case. 1. n its examination of the alleged violation of Article 2 of the Convention, the Court found that “in almost all cases where a person is assaulted or maltreated ... their complaints will fall to be examined rather under Article 3 of the Convention” (see paragraph 76 in fine of the judgment). That being so, the Court is not persuaded in the circumstances of this case “that the use of force applied by the gendarmes when they apprehended Abdüllatif İlhan was of such a nature or degree as to breach Article 2 of the Convention” (see paragraph 77 of the judgment, second subparagraph). In so saying, the Court suggests that Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention are part of a continuum or, more precisely, that only a difference in severity separates them. Even if there may be interference or even overlap between those two provisions, we think that Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention also have objects which are different and distinct – life in the former, integrity of the person in the latter – which must be examined as such. 2. In the judgment in the instant case the Court finds, on the basis of medical reports drawn up immediately after the events, that the injury inflicted on Abdüllatif İlhan – who suffered brain damage following blows to the head inflicted by gendarmes – was identified as being of a “lifethreatening character” (see paragraph 77 of the judgment). That finding, which is also not contradicted in the Commission's report (paragraph 219), was in our opinion not only necessary but also sufficient for a decision that there had been a violation of Article 2 of the Convention. 3. In the Osman v. the United Kingdom judgment of 28 October 1998 (Reports of Judgments and Decisions 1998-VIII) and in the Yaşa v. Turkey judgment of 2 September 1998 (Reports 1998-VI) the Court has already held that Article 2 of the Convention applies where an applicant has been the victim of an assault which put his or her life in danger, even if, by chance, he or she survived. Referring to those cases and also to the L.C.B. v. the United Kingdom judgment of 9 June 1998 (Reports 1998-III), the Court notes “the positive obligation on the State to protect the life of the individual from third parties or from the risk of illness under the first sentence of Article 2 § 1”. It considers, however, that “it is only in exceptional circumstances that physical ill-treatment by State officials which does not result in death may disclose a breach of Article 2 of the Convention” (see paragraph 76 of the judgment). We wonder what those “exceptional circumstances” might be