"District judges and federal magistrates have once again clearly demonstrated their bias and illegality in favor of Emílio" Lozoya, said the Attorney General's Office of the Mexican Republic.
The MP's statement came after a Mexican judge at a Mexico City appeals court rejected as evidence information from Lozoya's bank accounts in Brazil and Switzerland, after ruling that they were not obtained with a court order.
The Attorney General's Office described this decision as partial and illegal and claimed that it harms the Mexican State and Pemex.
The MP argued that obtaining information on bank accounts abroad is provided for in the Constitution of Mexico and is something carried out regularly by the Mexican Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, through an international cooperation mechanism.
The Attorney General's Office added that the Supreme Court of Justice of Mexico also considered these instruments legal.
In March, the judge responsible for the prison where Lozoya has been held in pre-trial detention since November 2021, Gerardo Alarcón, ordered the former Pemex leader to go to trial, with the Public Prosecutor's Office asking for a sentence of 46 years in prison.
Lozoya is accused of embezzlement, bribery, criminal association and use of funds of illicit origin.
Lozoya's defense lawyer, Miguel Ontiveros, highlighted that the former director of Pemex (2012-2016) showed willingness to pay more than 200 million pesos (around 10 million euros) in compensation.
The Attorney General's Office of the Mexican Republic also requested a 22-year prison sentence for Lozoya's mother, Gilda Margarita Austin, and compensation worth 7.3 million dollars for the Odebrecht case.
Lozoya, who was arrested in Spain at the beginning of 2020 and extradited to Mexico, has two cases open in Mexican justice, both for corruption, for allegedly receiving bribes worth 10.5 million dollars from Odebrecht.
In January 2022, the Mexican Association against Corruption and Impunity revealed official documents implicating current government officials in the Odebrecht scandal.
The current President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, promised to investigate Odebrecht bribes, which totaled more than 20 million dollars during the governments of Vicente Fox (2000-2006), Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) and Enrique Peña Nieto (2012 -2018).
In April 2017, a New York judge ordered Odebrecht to pay 2.6 billion dollars for the bribery scandal involving officials in 12 Latin American and African countries, including Angola and Mozambique.
