Federal Public Prosecutor's Office requests documents for new investigation into Herzog's death.

By Camila Boehm – Reporter for Agência Brasil

The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office in São Paulo (MPF-SP) has opened a new investigation into the criminal responsibility of agents of the military dictatorship for the death of journalist Vladimir Herzog, who was arrested and tortured in 1975. The prosecutor in charge, Ana Letícia Absy, has already requested documents and information related to Herzog's death from the National and State Truth Commissions and various other bodies, including the National Archives and the São Paulo state archives.

The investigation was opened last Friday (3), however, the first official requests for information are being sent out today by the Public Ministry, which also informed that bibliographic sources will also be used throughout the investigation, including the book Grandma's House, by journalist Marcelo Godoy.

The reopening of the investigations was based on the determinations of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), which condemned the Brazilian State for the lack of investigation, trial, and punishment of those involved in Herzog's murder. In the sentence issued in March of this year, the IACHR highlighted that the episode constitutes a crime against humanity and that the Amnesty Law cannot be applied as a reason for the State to fail to investigate it. Despite the Supreme Federal Court's assessment in 2010 recognizing the constitutionality of the Amnesty Law, it cannot be used in cases that fall under the category of crimes against humanity.

“The torture and death of Vladimir Herzog were not an accident, but the consequence of an extremely organized and structured repression machine designed to act in this way and physically eliminate any democratic or partisan opposition to the dictatorial regime, using practices and techniques that were documented, approved, and meticulously monitored by high-ranking officers of the Army and the Executive Branch,” says the IACHR in its ruling.

The Court further concluded that "amnesty provisions, limitation periods and the establishment of exclusions of liability that seek to prevent the investigation and punishment of those responsible for serious human rights violations, such as torture, summary, extrajudicial or arbitrary executions and enforced disappearances, are inadmissible."

Brazil has previously been condemned by the Court for its inaction in cases concerning crimes committed during the dictatorship. In 2010, the IACHR issued a ruling against the country for failing to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the deaths of militants who participated in the so-called Araguaia Guerrilla.

The following year, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) stated that it adopts in its actions "the Court's understanding regarding the imprescriptibility and the impossibility of amnesty for assassinations and disappearances of opponents of the military regime." The crimes, the Attorney General's Office highlighted in a 2011 statement, were committed "in the context of a systematic and widespread attack by the Brazilian State against the civilian population, which allows them to be classified as crimes against humanity."

History

Vladimir Herzog died on October 25, 1975, the same day he voluntarily presented himself to the Department of Information Operations (DOI) in São Paulo to give a statement. After suffering torture within the unit's facilities, agents of the military dictatorship staged a suicide – a version endorsed by the Army – simulating a hanging by wrapping a strip of cloth around his neck and tying it to a grate approximately 1,6 meters high.

Three years later, a lawsuit filed by Herzog's family led the Federal Court to recognize the falsity of the autopsy report and attribute the crime to the Brazilian government. Later, the Brazilian state admitted its responsibility through publications by the Special Commission on Political Deaths and Disappearances (2007) and the National Truth Commission (2014). In 2013, the Court of Justice of São Paulo (TJ-SP) ruled that the injuries and mistreatment suffered during the interrogation should be included in Herzog's death certificate.

In the criminal field, however, recent attempts to identify the murderers have been unsuccessful. The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) emphasized that "cases like Herzog's still face resistance in the Judiciary, which has invoked not only the Amnesty Law but also the alleged statute of limitations to block proceedings related to crimes committed during the dictatorship."

Of the 36 lawsuits filed by the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) in recent years across the country against agents of repression involved in the murders of civilians, only two are currently underway in federal courts. The MPF stated that the difficulties also extend to accessing official data from the military regime. "The MPF has already sought, for example, information about the officers who worked at the DOI (Department of Political and Social Order), but has not been able to access the federal government's archives relating to that period," the agency announced.