FGR rejects reparation agreement with Lozoya; goes to trial for Odebrecht

The General Prosecutor of the Republic (FGR) rejected the million-dollar reparation agreement proposed by the former director of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), Emilio Lozoya, in the Odebrecht case, for which the former official will go to trial from prison.

Last Friday before Judge Gerardo Genaro Alarcón López, they appeared Emilio Lozoya Austin; her mother, Gilda Margarita Austin (via videoconference from her home), and their defense.

In the hearing in the courts of the Federal Criminal Justice Center of the North Prison, the agents of the FGRas well as legal representatives of Pemex and the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF), expressed their rejection of the reparation agreement proposed by Lozoya, consisting of some 200 million pesos for the criminal process of Odebrecht.

When taking the floor, Emilio Lozoya questioned that he accepted extradition to Mexico from Spain while waiting for an opportunity criteria with the FGR, in addition to agreeing to cooperate in the Odebrecht case with a complaint that he filed with the Prosecutor’s Office against legislators (Ricardo Anaya and Jorge Luis Lavalle) and a former official (Carlos Treviño), who allegedly received bribes in exchange for voting for and supporting, respectively, the 2014 energy reform.

At the hearing, Lozoya’s mother said she was a “hostage” of justice for being under house arrest for 1,000 days, and asked President Andrés Manuel López Obrador: “where is justice?”

Judge eliminates “mother evidence” of the accusation

Meanwhile, the lawyers of the former director of PemexMiguel Ontiveros Alonso and Alejandro Rojas Pruneda, asked the judge to annul two essential pieces of evidence in the case presented by the FGR against Lozoya, one of them the transfers made by Odebrecht to accounts in Switzerland of Lozoya.

In this sense, documents of financial transfers made by companies linked to Odebrecht to two Lozoya companies in Switzerland were discarded, where he allegedly received bribes for 10.5 million dollars. The judge accepted the argument of the defense, in the sense that the Federal Public Ministry obtained the evidence illegally.

Lozoya’s legal team intends with this elimination of evidence that his client can clear the charges for money laundering, bribery and criminal association that are charged in this case.

This Monday, March 13, a continuity hearing will be held where the judge could announce the start of the trial against Lozoya.

jorge.monroy@eleconomista.mx

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