Defense achieves the withdrawal of 3 tests against Lozoya

Gustavo Castillo and Cesar Arellano

Newspaper La Jornada
Saturday March 11, 2023, p. 5

In the first session of the intermediate stage of the process against Emilio Lozoya Austin, former director of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) suffered a severe setback. The former official’s defense managed to have financial documents from Swiss banks discarded as evidence, considering that the Federal Public Ministry obtained them illegally and that bank secrecy was violated. Proof of financial transfers made by shell companies controlled by Odebrecht to two front companies owned by Lozoya, through which he received bribes of $10.5 million, were also illegally obtained.

Likewise, all verifications of the transfers made in the Swiss financial system to its two companies were excluded and the records of the reparation agreement reached by the Odebrecht company in the United States, in which the delivery was made internationally known, were declared illegal as evidence. of bribery involving the former director of Pemex.

The elements excluded for the trial stage are considered transcendental points in the investigations of the Odebrecht case, in which, according to the investigations, Lozoya Austin received bribes to benefit the Brazilian construction company.

Provision

At the Federal Criminal Justice Center based in the North Prison, Judge Gerardo Genaro Alarcón López led the intermediate stage procedure, in which Lozoya Austin; Her mother, Gilda Margarita Austin and Solís, and the defense of both raised their willingness to comply with a reparation agreement, which according to them, had already been reached since April of last year and has not materialized.

Lozoya issued a statement in which he assured that he had complied with the FGR the terms to reach a reparation agreement and obtain an opportunity criterion. He assured that, among the actions that the Federal Public Ministry has carried out based on his collaboration, there are various investigation folders, having brought former PAN senator Jorge Luis Lavalle to trial and the accusations against Carlos Alberto Treviño Morales, former director of Pemex, who is a fugitive from justice. Also, the arrest warrant against the deputy and former PAN national leader Ricardo Anaya.

From the beginning of the hearing, Lozoya Austin assured that he had 200 million pesos to cover the repair of the damage. Gilda Margarita Austin y Solís, who participated by videoconference, asserted that crimes were attributed to her that she did not commit and asked that the state does not use women as hostages.

The proposal for an agreement was rejected by the representatives of the FGR, Pemex and the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF). Judge Alarcón López said: As there is no agreement, we advance in this intermediate hearing.

Then, the defense of the former director of Pemex, led by Miguel Ontiveros Alonso and Alejandro Rojas Pruneda, questioned the legal personality of the FIU and Pemex, since both institutions are not victims or affected by the crimes that Lozoya is accused of. , his mother, his wife and his sister, as well as a real estate entrepreneur.

No damage to cover

The lawyers indicated that neither Pemex nor the UIF have shown that they have been morally, financially or operationally affected by the operations with resources of illegal origin, bribery and criminal association of which the former director of the oil company and six relatives are accused, for which they They asked the judge to dismiss them as affected and determine who to deposit the resources demanded as reparation for the damage to move towards their release. Likewise, they took up the indications of the Public Ministry and assured that if the actions of the former director of Pemex have constituted a threat and not a proven fact, there was no damage to cover.

Faced with the judge’s refusal to validate their assertions, they announced that they will present an amparo and will seek with this legal resource that Pemex and the UIF are declared without adequate legal personality to obtain reparation for the damage.

Once the point was settled, the judge declared the intermediate hearing open so that the FGR synthetically presented the accusation against Lozoya. It was exposed that he had agreements with representatives of Odebrecht, particularly with Luis de Meneses Weyll, who was a representative of the Brazilian construction company in Mexico and received bribes of 10.5 million dollars.

long audience

The judge wanted the hearing to conclude at the stage in which the order to open the trial against Lozoya is declared. However, the diligence was lengthening once the review of the evidence that must be used to pass sentence arrived; It was there when the ex-official’s defense scored legal triumphs and managed to have documents considered important to demonstrate his responsibility for the crimes he was accused of being discarded.

Of the first 10 FGR pieces of evidence questioned by the defense, seven were approved, including the appearance as witnesses (even by videoconference) of the main executives of Ode-brecht, but three were rejected for having been obtained illegally, two for having violated the banking secrecy and one more for presenting documentation and intervening private communications in emails without judicial authorization.