The former director of Petróleos Mexicanos Emilio Lozoya Austin must remain in prison in the North Preventive Prison of Mexico City, at least until the processes opened against him for the Odebrecht and Agronitrogenados cases are completed, and it is defined whether or not he is guilty of the charges against him.
This was concluded by federal magistrate Isabel Porras Odriozola, head of the Third Unitary Criminal Court of Mexico City, after definitively dismissing the appeal filed by the former director of Pemex against the preventive detention that was ratified against him on January 26.
According to judicial authorities, the magistrate considered that the judge responsible for the case, Artemio Zúñiga, properly valued that the former high official of the government of Enrique Peña Nieto has the economic, human and material resources to try to escape before the processes initiated against him are resolved.
Emilio Lozoya has been deprived of his liberty in the North Prison since November 3 of last year, after the Attorney General’s Office asked the judge to order the preventive detention against him for both cases, after concluding that the conditions that had allowed the former official to be free for a year and a half had already changed.
Specifically, the FGR considered that Lozoya had failed to fulfill his promise to provide conclusive evidence that would show that he had not kept the money from the alleged bribes of the companies Odebrecht and Agronitrogenados, and that it had been to force him to receive it to deliver it to others. Judge Zúñiga, who since Lozoya was extradited to Mexico in 2020 had expressed his estrangement because the former director of Pemex was allowed to be free, ruled that there were sufficient elements to apply preventive detention against him.
Last December, the FGR filed the final accusations against Lozoya for both cases, after concluding that he and his family were the final beneficiaries of the money transferred to him by the aforementioned companies through shell companies and prestanombres. The prosecution has requested that he be brought to trial and convictions handed down against him which, combined, would mean more than six decades in prison.
This month the intermediate hearings of both processes will be held. Next Monday, April 11, the Agronitrogenados case has been scheduled, while on april 27, the Odebrecht case will take place. At these sessions, the accusations will be presented orally, and the parties will confront the evidence they have in preparation for the trial.
These hearings also represent the last chance that the former director of Pemex will have to reach an agreement with the FGR and Pemex, and try to avoid trial with some reparative agreement or other benefit.
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