Former Pemex Director Emilio Lozoya. Photo: Google

By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF

Former Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) Director Emilio Lozoya on Wednesday, Jan. 26, was denied a habeas corpus injunction against being held without bail and against any further warrants for his arrest.

Lozoya, who has been held in prevention detention (jail without the possibility of bail) in the North Penitentiary since Nov. 3 on charges of alleged corruption and illicit enrichment, as well as an alleged defrauding of the government in the sale the Agronitrogenados fertilizer plant.

Although Lozoya was originally granted house arrest instead of preventive jailtime after having been extradited to Mexico from Spain in July 2020 for his alleged involvement in the international Odebrecht oil money corruption case, late last year, a federal judge ordered him detained as a possible flight risk after he had been photographed dining in an upscale Mexico City restaurant. 

Lozoya has repeatedly pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, although he previously tried to cut a deal with Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (FGR) to repay the money he allegedly stole.

In his latest injunction (amparo), Lozoya’s lawyers appealed against any arrest warrant that had been issued against him “without legitimate cause and outside the judicial procedure.”

That amparo was denied on Wednesday.

The FGR has opened a series of investigation folders on Lozoya on charges other than  those initiated by the Agronitrogenados and Odebrecht cases, which have not yet been prosecuted.