Gustavo Castillo Garcia
Newspaper La Jornada
Saturday April 9, 2022, p. 9
Next Monday will begin the defining stage for Emilio Lozoya Austin, former director of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), accused of operations with resources of illicit origin and bribery, for the Agronitrogenados case, since a federal judge will have to ask for the last time if there is a possibility to reach a reparation agreement with the Attorney General of the Republic (FGR).
If an agreement is not reached, then they will proceed to take him to trial, where he would be sentenced for having facilitated the acquisition of Agronitrogenados by Pemex with an overprice of more than 200 million dollars, indicated officials from the Federal Public Ministry.
Last January, the MP informed Judge José Artemio Zúñiga Mendoza, in charge of the process against Lozoya, that if he goes to trial, he will request that he be sentenced to 15 years in prison, the payment of a 5,000-day fine and 70.6 million pesos as reparation for the damage to the state company.
The officials interviewed reported that Lozoya Austin – detained in Malaga, Spain, in February 2020 and imprisoned in the North Reclusorio, in Mexico City, since November of last year – must cover the repair of the damage and the fine considered by the FGR if he seeks to reach a reparation agreement that allows him to be free of these charges, although he would continue to be imprisoned for the accusation surrounding the Odebrecht case.
▲ Emilio Lozoya is in prison for the Odebrecht and Agronitrogenados cases.Photo the day
Likewise, it is pending that it be disclosed whether the FGR managed to order the extinction of ownership over the residence that the former director of Pemex acquired with resources obtained from the bribe he received from businessman Alonso Ancira, majority shareholder of the company Altos Hornos de México (AHMSA), to support the acquisition of the company Agronitrogenados.
According to the inquiries, the former official received more than 3 million dollars for the purchase to be approved.
Ancira is free after reaching a reparation agreement, which includes the payment to Pemex of more than 200 million dollars, in various installments. Last November he delivered the first 50 million dollars agreed upon.
The third unitary court in criminal matters, based in Mexico City, rejected the appeal against the preventive detention promoted by the defense of Lozoya Austin, who must remain in jail until the conclusion of his criminal proceedings in the cases of Agronitrogenados and Odebrecht .
