The former governor of Tabasco was absolved yesterday of embezzlement charges a little more than a year after he was sent to jail for over 10 years.
Andrés Rafael Granier Melo, who was arrested for embezzling 196 million pesos (US $10.19 million at today’s exchange rate) and tax fraud six years ago, was sentenced in March 2018 to 10 years and 10 months and ordered to pay reparation of the amount stolen.
But the sentence was overturned by a state court on appeal.
Tabasco Governor Adán Augusto López Hernández said the state government respected the court’s decision.
“The verdict is ‘not guilty’ and as the state government, we respect the decisions that the judicial authorities make.”
One of Granier’s attorneys, Miguel Alberto Romero Pérez, said the ex-governor was in good health and will be permitted to return to Tabasco as soon as the official court proceedings are concluded.
Another of his lawyers indicated that the charges were politically motivated. Yesterday, Eduardo Luengo Creel said “the political persecution has finally come to an end.”
Granier was the state’s Institutional Revolutionary Party governor from 2007 until 2012.
Source: El Financiero (sp)
