İLHAN v. TURKEY JUDGMENT 17 2. Deprivation of life shall not be regarded as inflicted in contravention of this Article when it results from the use of force which is no more than absolutely necessary: (a) in defence of any person from unlawful violence; (b) in order to effect a lawful arrest or to prevent the escape of a person lawfully detained; (c) in action lawfully taken for the purpose of quelling a riot or insurrection.” 66. The Government disputed those allegations. The Commission expressed the majority opinion that Article 2 had been infringed in respect of the injury inflicted on Abdüllatif İlhan, the delay in sending him to hospital and the lack of an effective investigation. A minority of the Commission found that Article 2 could not be violated where death had not been caused and there was, at the same time, the absence of the intention to cause death. A. Submissions of those who appeared before the Court 1. The applicant 67. The applicant submitted that Abdüllatif İlhan had been unlawfully subjected to a life-threatening attack. In his view, Article 2 was not confined to the use of lethal force but included also the use of potentially lethal force, namely, force which could foreseeably result in death. Article 2 required also that such force should only be used where “no more than absolutely necessary” for the attainment of one of the aims listed in paragraph 2 of Article 2. In this case, Abdüllatif İlhan was beaten on the head at least once with a rifle butt, in a deliberate assault carried out with considerable force. Such a blow to the head, which is a vulnerable part of the body, was a foreseeably life-threatening assault and showed a reckless disregard for the life of the victim. There was no justification however for any use of force as Abdüllatif İlhan did not resist arrest. 68. As the Convention concerned the civil liability of States and not the criminal liability of the individual perpetrator, the issue of the mens rea of the perpetrator was irrelevant. The lack of prompt medical treatment was an aggravating circumstance in this case. 69. The applicant submitted that the respondent State had also failed in its obligation under Article 2 to protect his brother through the criminal-law framework and the effective enforcement of its sanctions. The cases previously examined before the Convention organs showed that the attitude and conduct of the security forces and public prosecutors in south-east Turkey in and around 1993 resulted from the failure of the State to perform its duty of preventing and suppressing offences against the person. He relied