Human rights body condemns Brazil for journalist’s death

SAO PAULO – Brazil says condemnation from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for the torture and death of well-known journalist Vladimir Herzog during the country’s military dictatorship is “just.”

Foreign Minister Aloysio Nunes Ferreira says Friday that respect for the commission’s decision earlier in the week is “unquestionable.”

In its ruling, the commission said Brazil had been negligent in investigating, prosecuting and punishing those guilty for Herzog’s death.

Herzog was arrested and murdered in 1975 while in an army jail in the city of Sao Paulo.

The army said at the time Herzog had been detained because he was suspected of “subversive” activities and that he committed suicide by hanging himself with his belt.

The public indignation caused by his murder led to the gradual dismantling of the 1964-1985 regime.