Mexican pol snubs questioning in corruption probe

"We were waiting for him, but he didn't appear," a source in the state Attorney General's Office told Efe.

Former Gov. Andres Granier had been told to report at 11:00 a.m., the source said.

Granier skipped the appointment because he was not "cited legally," his attorney, Eduardo Lugo Creel, told a Tabasco radio station.

The former governor is still waiting to see what form the "accusation so heralded in the media" will take, Lugo said, insisting that prosecutors have yet to provide evidence pointing to any criminal responsibility on Granier's part.

Authorities cannot reveal the specific charges because the investigation is in its initial phase, Tabasco Attorney General Fernando Valenzuela told a press conference Thursday.

The former governor will be subpoenaed again and if fails to show up, "he will not only be losing his constitutional opportunity to clarify the facts, but also (the chance) to know ... what he is accused of," the state attorney general said.

Granier's current whereabouts are unknown.

While investigators are focusing on the 88.5 million pesos ($7.1 million) recently found and presumably taken from state coffers, the probe goes beyond that, Valenzuela said earlier this week.

Tabasco Gov. Arturo Nuñez told MVS radio in February that an audit of Granier's administration turned up millions of dollars in missing funds.

The missing funds were transferred from the federal government to Tabasco but never reached the agencies they were intended for, Nuñez said.

Both Nuñez and Granier are members of Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.