especially against organisations involved in armed resistance actions, 209 but also against unarmed civilians; 210 e) The modus operandi of political repression at that time was as follows: using informers, witnesses, undercover agents or the interrogation of suspects, the DOI agents identified a possible members of an organization classified as “subversive” or “terrorist,” The suspect was then abducted by agents of the search and arrest teams from the Operations Section and immediately taken to one of the Interrogation Subsection teams; 211 f) Following the 1964 coup d’état, torture was used systematically by the Brazilian State, either as a means of gathering information or obtaining confessions (interrogation technique), or as a way of spreading fear (intimidation strategy). It became an essential part of the military system of political repression, based on the arguments of the supremacy of national security and the existence of a “war against terrorism.” It was used regularly by different agencies of the repressive structure, including police stations and military establishments, as well as on clandestine premises in different parts of national territory. The practice of torture was deliberate and widespread, constituting a fundamental element of the repression apparatus assembled by the regime; 212 g) Interrogations, as well as torture and the other punishments, were rigorously controlled by the Section head. Since the DOI/CODIs had many interrogators and these were divided into at least three different teams (A, B, C), the interrogation was always controlled by the head of the Information and Analysis Section. In this way, before beginning the interrogation, the interrogator received a sheet with a list of questions and, at the bottom, indications of the so-called “ammunition” and the treatment to be given to the person interrogated, 213 and h) Other evidence of the systematic nature of torture was the existence of a field of knowledge on which it was based; the presence of doctors and nurses in the torture centers; the repetition of acts with the same characteristics; the bureaucratization of the crime, with the allocation of its own establishments, resources and personnel, with teams to work shifts while inflicting it, and the adoption of denial strategies. 214 240. Regarding the nature and egregiousness of the acts, the Court notes that official reports of the Brazilian State documented the following methods of physical and psychological torture used by the dictatorship: a) Physical torture: 1. Electric shocks: application of electric shocks to different parts of the body of the person being tortured, preferably the most sensitive parts such as the penis and the anus, attaching one pole to the former and introducing the other in the latter, or attaching one pole to the testicles and placing another 209 Cf. Federal Public Prosecution Service, Crimes da Ditadura Militar, p. 54 (evidence file, folio 14251). 210 Cf. Federal Public Prosecution Service, Crimes da Ditadura Militar, p. 85 (evidence file, folio 14282). Cf. Federal Public Prosecution Service, Crimes da Ditadura Militar, pp. 73 and 74 (evidence file, folio 14270 and 14271). 211 212 Cf. Report of the National Truth Commission, pp. 343 to 346 (evidence file, folios 873 to 878). 213 Cf. Report of the National Truth Commission, p. 144 (evidence file, folio 674). 214 Cf. Report of the National Truth Commission, p. 350 (evidence file, folio 880). 56