President Andrés Manuel López Obrador reiterated his confidence in the prosecutor of the Republic, Alejandro Gertz Manero, after the dissemination of an audio of a negotiation, allegedly between the head of the FGR and Emilio Lozoya Thalmann, father of the former director of Pemex, Emilio Lozoya.
At a press conference, he said that he did not want to get into the issue and that the important thing is to know what happened to the cases involving the former head of Pemex and repair the damage.
“I have no opinion on that because it’s a struggle of interests. Mr. Lozoya is accused of giving bribes to PAN legislators and also of handling money in the campaign of Mr. Peña Nieto, it is a matter that the prosecutor’s office is seeing and there is a lot of confrontation, lawyers participate. I don’t want to get into it, just repeat that I have confidence in the prosecutor,” he said.
Yesterday an audio was released with the voice supposedly of the Attorney General of the Republic, Alejandro Gertz Manero, who claims to Lozoya Thalmann that he and his son have promoted an amparo against the legal actions that the prosecutor’s office was undertaking against him for the Odebrecht case.
Read: Lozoya agrees to pay 2 million 695 thousand pesos to fight charge for tax fraud
The voice that is supposedly that of the prosecutor reproaches the businessman who has sought to promote this resource without warning and even speaks of a double discourse.
In response, Lozoya Thalmann on several occasions apologizes and clarifies to Gertz that he will ask his lawyers to withdraw such resources. The prosecutor, still in an annoyed tone, demands Lozoya’s father to change his defenders and warns him that, if it does not happen, there could be consequences.
After the release of the audio of a negotiation, allegedly between Alejandro Gertz and the father of Emilio Lozoya, @lopezobrador_ reiterated his confidence in the prosecutor and added that the important thing is to know what happened to the cases involving the former director of Pemex and repair the damage pic.twitter.com/dKjTBWl4AB
— Animal Politico (@Pajaropolitico) June 24, 2022
When questioned about the issue and if he did not see influence, President López Obrador said that he is of the opinion that it should be sought that there are protected witnesses.
“It is up to the FGR and the judges, but if they steal money from the budget or commit crimes that affect public life and they go to litigation and they can be in jail for a while and then they leave and even the money is returned, because that was how it was before, just remember some very notorious cases, that they were in jail, it is not the most pleasant thing to be in prison, but then they returned all the money for influence,” he said.
Both Emilio Lozoya Austin and his mother are currently on trial for their alleged responsibility in crimes of money laundering and criminal association, corresponding to the Odebrecht case.
Other filtered audio
This is not the first audio implicating prosecutor Gertz Manero.
In March, other conversations were released in which the prosecutor talked about the case he was holding against his brother Federico’s partner, Laura Morán, and her daughter, Alejandra Cuevas.
Read: Carlos Treviño, former director of Pemex, asks Gertz to reject agreement with Lozoya; accuses millionaire damages
Within those conversations, Gertz spoke of his intention to influence the decision that the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) would take on the amparo that both women had promoted to protect themselves from the accusations of the prosecutor, who held them responsible for the death of Federico.
Weeks later, the SCJN decided to acquit Morán and Cuevas. The latter was released after being detained for more than a year.
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