NGO asked not to endorse the reparatory agreement between Pemex Emilio Lozoya

The civil organization Tojil filed a formal request called amicus curiae with the federal judge of the Northern Prison, José Artemio Zúñiga Mendoza, to reject any reparatory agreement or criteria of opportunity that would allow the former director of Pemex, Emilio Lozoya, to avoid a trial in the Odebrecht cases and Agronitrogens.

In a statement, Tojil pointed out that any reparatory agreement or criterion of opportunity involving Emilio Lozoya violates the law, since it is a case of public interest related to a corruption case, in addition to the fact that the crime of money laundering does not allow reparatory agreements.

In the text, the organization specializing in issues of combating corruption stated that it learned about the agreement between Lozoya and Pemex from the media, for which it accused the Attorney General's Office (FGR) of seeking illegal agreements with Emilio Lozoya, with the aim of “exonerating him from cases of corruption and laundering money in matters relating to the Agronitrogenates and Odebrecht plant”.

Regarding the determination for Emilio Lozoya to repair the damage caused to the treasury caused by the overpriced purchase of the Agronitrogenados plant, for which he is accused of money laundering, Tojil assured that according to the criminal framework, the criminal settlement is not appropriate for this offense.

They explained that the law provides for this type of “forgiveness” only for crimes followed by complaint, for wrongful crimes that are guilty (unintentional) or for property wrongdoing (such as theft or fraud), so in the opinion of Tojil's lawyers, the case of Emilio Lozoya does not fit into any of these cases.

With regard to the Odebrecht case, in which the government accuses Lozoya Austin of accepting bribes from the Brazilian construction company, Tojil assured that the economic reparatory agreement and the criterion of opportunity are not appropriate for having reported other, apparently more serious crimes.

“If the criterion of opportunity or the reparatory agreement were approved, we would be acting irregularly with the sole purpose of favoring Emilio Lozoya in one of the most serious corruption scandals in Latin America,” Tojil warned.

Tojil stressed that article 256 of the National Code of Criminal Procedure expressly prohibits the application of the criterion of opportunity to cases that “seriously affect the public interest” such as the Odebrecht case.

“It is evident, since it is a case of major corruption, in which the accused is a former high-level public official (...) as well as one of the obvious beneficiaries of serious acts of corruption, one is invariably faced with a case of public interest, hence the exception provided for in article 256, in which it is expressly envisaged that the criteria of opportunity are not appropriate in cases of public interest”, he said.

In the statement, Tojil highlighted that this type of negotiation is taking place in what it considers to be a context of possible corruption and mismanagement within the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic (FGR), which raises more doubts about the procedures being carried out.

That's why he accused prosecutor Alejandro Gertz Manero of using the institution to settle personal matters, such as the legal suit he was holding against Alejandra Cuevas and her mother, Laura Morán.

“Given this, the judiciary is a key element in putting a brake on the prosecution and rejecting the agreement reached with Lozoya, which would force him to go to a public trial in which the facts are clarified and, where appropriate, answer for the serious acts of corruption of which he is accused,” he said.

Tojil accused the FGR of engaging in a case of obstruction of justice and encouraging systematic impunity in the country.

“Faced with the obvious corruption and abuse of power that permeates the FGR, we call on Judge Artemio Zúñiga to defend the victims of corruption and not to accept the agreement reached by the FGR and Lozoya,” Tojil concluded in his statement.

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