his liberty, recourse to physical force which has not been made strictly necessary by his own conduct is in principle an infringement of his rights (see paragraph 94 above). 105. The Court notes that in July 1993 the GMPO decided that in cases of alleged police misconduct it was necessary to take evidence from independent witnesses (see paragraph 27 above). However, the examination of two further witnesses, one of whom had only a vague recollection of the incidents in question, was not sufficient to rectify the deficiencies in the investigation up to that point. 106. Against this background, in view of the lack of a thorough and effective investigation into the applicant’s arguable claim that he had been beaten by police officers, the Court finds that there has been a violation of Article 3 of the Convention. 2. Alleged violation of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention 107. Mr Assenov claimed to have been denied effective access to a court, in breach of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention, which provides, inter alia: “In the determination of his civil rights and obligations … everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial tribunal established by law. …” 108. The applicant submitted that the decision of the prosecuting authorities not to bring criminal proceedings against the police officers who allegedly ill-treated him had, in effect, operated to deny him access to a court in respect of his civil claim for damages arising out of the same incident. Thus, since no criminal proceedings had been instigated, it had not been open to him to join such proceedings as a civil party in order to claim compensation (see paragraph 59 above). Moreover, although he accepted that it would in theory have been possible for him to bring an action for damages in the civil courts, he maintained that, since the damage in question arose out of an alleged criminal act, a civil court would have been obliged, under Article 182(d) of the Code of Civil Procedure (see paragraphs 61-62 above), to stay any such action until the issue of criminal liability had been decided. Given the likelihood of delay inherent in Bulgarian criminal procedure, this suspension might, in practice, have been indefinite. 109. The Commission, joined by the Government (see also paragraph 82 above), noted that the Law on Obligations and Contracts and the Law on State Responsibility for Damage provided for an action for damages to the civil courts in relation to alleged acts of police brutality. Had the applicant brought such an action, a civil court could have examined it on the basis of the evidence before it, without having first to establish criminal responsibility. According to Bulgarian case-law, the civil court would only have had to suspend the proceedings under Article 182(d) of the Code of Civil Procedure if it had discovered new “criminal elements”, for example, facts of which the prosecuting authorities had not previously been aware. The Commission did not consider that this procedure would have operated to impair the very essence of the right of access to a court in the applicants’ case.