The USP law faculty will promote, this Monday (10), a debate on the sentence that condemned the Brazilian State, still during the military era (1964-1985), for the .
The debate, held in the college’s main hall, in the center of São Paulo, is part of the calendar of events in memory of the 50th anniversary of Herzog’s death, completed in October this year. Director of TV Cultura, the journalist was killed in the capital of São Paulo on October 25, 1975.
Vlado, as he was known, went to the headquarters of the repression body that day to talk about his (Brazilian Communist Party) against the dictatorship. He died hours later, after being subjected to torture sessions. The regime announced that he had committed suicide.
The version was soon challenged, mobilizing protests, student strikes and public questions at the time, including one that openly challenged the dictatorship.
Vlado’s widow, publicist Clarice Herzog filed a lawsuit in the Federal Court of São Paulo, in April 1976, asking that the State be held responsible for the arrest, torture and death of her husband. In October 1978, judge Márcio José de Moraes condemned the Union for the crime.
The decision is considered historic as it was handed down in full force of AI-5 (Institutional Act nº 5), an act that.
The judge went against friends who advised him to wait to publish the decision, as AI-5 would no longer be in force by the end of that year.
“I gave the sentence with the AI-5 in force. I am proud to have had this vision. It would be a reaction, a cry for the independence of the Judiciary. I had already formed my conviction, I would condemn the Union. The gesture would only have value, as a kind of political cry, of revolt against the dictatorship, if it were given under the climate of the dictatorship, under the AI-5”, said Márcio Moraes in 2005.
He had been a federal judge for two months when he took over the case. The sitting judge, about to retire, was prevented from giving the sentence because, according to Moraes, the dictatorship saw that a judge at the end of his career would feel more comfortable condemning the State than a beginner who “had much more to lose”.
The new judge said he received the following note from his predecessor: “By prohibiting me from reading the sentence, little do they know that their hand is much more capable and heavier.”
Moraes reported having sent the woman and her two daughters to Jacareí, in the interior of São Paulo, where her parents lived, to guarantee their safety. He also said that he took a vacation to dedicate himself to the 67-page decision that recognized the State as responsible for Herzog’s murder.
The dictatorship claimed that Vlado hanged himself in his cell with a belt – although the uniforms worn by prisoners at DOI-Codi did not have belts. The photo released by the government, created by the regime, showed the journalist on his knees bent, with his body hanging at a distance shorter than his height. When preparing for the burial, they found marks of torture on his body.
“The report was useless, signed only by an expert. The chief expert signed without carrying out the autopsy. The report, the Union’s main evidence, was not valid. The witnesses told what happened in those facilities. Some heard Herzog’s screams. That was enough evidence to convince me that Herzog died because of torture”, said the judge in the interview.
After the sentence, Moraes received a letter from Zora Herzog, Vlado’s mother, thanking him for his courage. “My son will not return, but his good name will not be tarnished. If his disappearance was not in vain for the history of the country, for me his loss is definitive, my pain has no consolation,” she said.
Zora’s letter was read by actress Fernanda Montenegro and shown in a video during an event, on October 25th of this year, at the Sé Cathedral.
Moraes is one of the guests announced at this Monday’s event. The debate will begin at 10am with a conversation between Leonardo Sica, president of OAB-SP; Celso Campilongo, director of the Faculty of Law at USP; Ivo Herzog, Vlado’s son and president of the board of the institute that bears his father’s name; and Maria Vitória Benevides, president of the Arns Commission. The debate will be mediated by the journalist from Sheet Patrícia Campos Mello.
The participation of former Minister of Justice José Carlos Dias, who worked in the defense of political prisoners, and Samuel MacDowell Figueiredo, one of the lawyers who worked in Clarice’s case against the Union, is also expected.
