ELCI AND OTHERS v. TURKEY JUDGMENT 101 and cruel suffering (see the Selmouni v. France judgment cited above, § 96). However, as the Court has further observed, certain acts which were classified in the past as “inhuman or degrading treatment” as opposed to “torture” could be classified differently in the future: the increasingly high standard being required in the area of the protection of human rights and fundamental liberties correspondingly and inevitably requires greater firmness in assessing breaches of the fundamental values of democratic societies (ibid. § 101). 635. The Court further recalls its case-law that, in assessing evidence in a claim of a violation of Article 3 of the Convention, it adopts the standard of proof “beyond reasonable doubt” (Avşar v. Turkey, no. 25657/94, § 282, ECHR 2001). Such proof may, however, follow from the coexistence of sufficiently strong, clear and concordant inferences or of similar unrebutted presumptions of fact (Ireland v. the United Kingdom judgment cited above, p. 65, § 161). 636. The Court is sensitive to the subsidiary nature of its task and recognises that it must be cautious in taking on the role of a first instance tribunal of fact, where this is not rendered unavoidable by the circumstances of a particular case (see, for example, McKerr v. the United Kingdom, no. 28883/95, decision of 4 April 2000). Nonetheless, where allegations are made under Article 3 of the Convention, as in the present case, the Court must apply a particularly thorough scrutiny (see, mutatis mutandis, the Ribitsch v. Austria judgment of 4 December 1995, Series A no. 336, § 32, and Avşar v. Turkey, cited above, § 283). 2. The present case 637. In assessing the applicants' allegations of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment, the Court has had particular regard to the oral evidence presented by witnesses before the Delegates of the Commission. 638. The Court finds that it is not possible to establish to the requisite standard of proof the veracity of Mr Elçi's allegations of ill-treatment by the Cizre police on his initial detention (paragraphs 14 and 86 above), there being no corroborative evidence before it. 639. However, as regards the allegations of ill-treatment at the Diyarbakır provincial gendarmerie command made by the applicants Tahir Elçi, Şinasi Tur, Sabahattin Acar, Niyazi Çem, Mehmet Selim Kurbanoğlu, Meral Daniş Beştaş, Mesut Beştaş, Vedat Erten, and Hüsniye Ölmez, the Court finds their claims credible as a whole. 640. The Court notes the consistency of the allegations made by the applicants that Tahir Elçi, Niyazi Çem, Meral Daniş Beştaş and Hüsniye Ölmez were insulted, assaulted, stripped naked and hosed down with