security forces, and (c) who had died as a result of suicide committed due to fear of imminent arrest or as a result of the psychological consequences of acts of torture perpetrated by agents of the security forces. 148. Law No. 9,140/95 also determined that the Special Commission could award pecuniary compensation to the next of kin of those who died or were disappeared for political reasons. In this regard, it established a mathematical formula and a minimum sum of R$100.000. 109 149. Based on that law, Clarice Herzog requested acknowledgement that Vladimir Herzog had been tortured and murdered in the São Paulo DOI/CODI. Her request was approved in April 1996 110 and, in 1997, she received R$100,000.00 (equivalent to approximately US$100,000.00 at the time) as compensation. 111 150. Subsequently, in 2007, the Special Commission published a report entitled “Direito à Memória e à Verdade” (The Right to Memory and to Truth) in which it analyzed the general context in which the last Brazilian dictatorship occurred and also cases of specific victims of State terrorism, including Vladimir Herzog. 112 151. Regarding Vladimir Herzog, the Special Commission concluded that: The case of Vladimir Herzog caused nation-wide commotion that changed the attitude of civil society owing to the acts of torture perpetrated against political prisoners. […] The death of Vladimir Herzog occurred when press censure was beginning to ease up and the general public began to lose its fear of dissent and protest. The repercussion of the accusations significantly damaged the credibility of the military regime and resulted in the rise of a strong feeling of indignation in all the opinion-forming media. The falsity of the alleged suicide became even clearer from the photographs that showed the journalist hanged in the São Paulo DOI–CODI offices, where he had gone to make a statement in response to a summons received the previous evening. […] Vladimir Herzog was placed on the list of individuals being monitored by the law enforcement agencies because they were suspected of belonging to the PCB. He was summoned to appear voluntarily before the DOI-CODI in Tutoia Street, Paraiso district, at 8 a.m. on October 25, 1875. The same day, about 15 hours later, his jailers allegedly found him dead, hanged with the belt of the prison one-piece suit, with his feet on the ground, partially suspended. Those detained with him were unanimous in declaring that the obligatory one-piece suit they all wore did not include a belt. That farce was finally exposed when the statements of George Duque Estrada and Leandro Konder, journalists detained in the same place, were published. They testified that they had heard Vladimir Herzog’s cries when he was being tortured. Clear evidence of torture was identified by the Jewish funeral committee in charge of preparing the body for burial. This was the reason Vladimir Herzog was not buried in the area of the cemetery kept for those who had committed suicide, according to the religious precepts of Judaism. Lastly, the contradictory statements of the forensic physicians, Harry Shibata, Arildo de Toledo Viana and Armando Canger Rodrígues, during the court action filed by the family, also contributed to demolish the false version of suicide. When the 109 Law No. 9,140 of December 4, 1995 (evidence file, folios 13724 to 13727). Copy of extract from the sixth regular meeting of the Commission on Political Deaths and Disappearances, published in the Official Gazette of April 11, 1996 (evidence file, folio 13729); Statement by Clarice Herzog during the public hearing. 110 111 Decree No. 2,255 of June 16, 1997 (evidence file, folio 13732). Direito à Memória e à Verdade: Special Commission on Political Deaths and Disappearances (evidence file, folios 1 to 499); Statement by Clarice Herzog during the public hearing. 112 32