They also differ 10 days Lozoya hearing for the Odebrecht case

Cesar Arellano and Eduardo Murillo

Newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday, November 8, 2022, p. 8

Federal Judge Erika Gutiérrez Fuentes also postponed the intermediate hearing in the criminal proceeding in the Odebrecht case against the former director of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), Emilio Lozoya, accused of money laundering, bribery and improper exercise of public service for allegedly having received 10.5 million dollars from the Brazilian construction company.

The justice official postponed the procedure by approving the defense arguments of the former official, who indicated that the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) did not give them four compact discs with video-recorded interrogations, including those of the Odebrecht executives who accuse him of receiving bribes, and that they also have two expert opinions pending, one on accounting and the other on foreign law.

In this regard, the prosecutor Manuel Granados Quiroz stated that they sent the request for the videos to the Coordination of Expert Services of the FGR, so that they could make a duplicate of the discs, which will be delivered in the coming days.

In the hearing held at the facilities of the Federal Criminal Justice Center based in the North Prison, and which lasted barely 20 minutes, Lozoya’s mother, Gilda Margarita Austin y Solís, was present remotely, because she faces preventive home detention for the same crimes.

The lawyers Miguel Ontiveros and Alejandro Rojas Pruneda reiterated that in this matter their client has had the main interest in extinguishing the criminal action, for this reason he maintains his proposal to reach a reparation agreement and that he be given a criterion of opportunity.

Before concluding, the legal representative of Pemex, Dayrén Zambrano Martínez, said that they supported what they had informed the Justice Center in the letter of July 26 of this year: that said agreement could not be finalized (for the reparation of the damage) and this offended party would already be in a position to hold the intermediate hearing.

Interviewed after leaving the hearing, Lozoya’s lawyer, Miguel Ontiveros Alonso, stated that his client maintains his intention to testify about the fate of the money that Odebrecht sent as bribes for the energy reform to be approved.

We all want to know where they are, who has them, who finally benefited from the suitcases full of money that were deliveredhe said, adding that among the beneficiaries is Ricardo Anaya, former PAN presidential candidate, and former President Enrique Peña Nieto.

We are clear, through the complaint presented by Emilio Lozoya Austin, and which is public, to your knowledge, that Enrique Peña Nieto, former president of the Republic, commanded the apparatus of the past six-year term, with his secretary of the Treasury and other actors who were named in the complaintheld.