MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) – A Mexican judge has sentenced a former regional governor from the main conservative opposition party to two years and three months in prison for embezzlement, the government of Aguascalientes state said.
Luis Armando Reynoso Femat, 58, was governor of the state in north-central Mexico for the National Action Party (PAN) from 2004 to 2010, when it was recaptured by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) of President Enrique Pena Nieto.
In a statement, the Aguascalientes attorney general’s office said a state judge had sentenced Reynoso Femat for embezzlement after finding he had sold state-owned land to a developer while serving as governor at a price far below its market value.
It did not specify how he benefited from the transaction.
Reynoso Femat has denied the allegations, saying he is a victim of attacks by PRI political opponents. In a statement on Facebook on Thursday, he said the case against him was not over because it still needed to go to a federal court.
The PAN and the PRI are competing for Aguascalientes again in 2016, when 13 state governors are up for election.