The former boss of Japanese car marker Nissan, Carlos Ghosn, claims he remains a “hostage’’ of the Japanese legal system, some two years after his spectacular escape from Japan to Lebanon.
Speaking remotely from Lebanon to members of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Tokyo on Monday, Ghosn said that Japan had refused to hand over the indictment against him to the Lebanese authorities so that he could face a fair trial there.
He said that by maintaining its Interpol request against him, Japan was attempting to extend its hostage justice beyond its borders and that the country wasn’t really interested in justice at all.
The architect of the French-Japanese Renault Nissan Mitsubishi car alliance was arrested in Tokyo on Nov. 19, 2018, and charged with violating stock market rules, among other offences.
He was released on bail in April 2019, subject to strict conditions, but then managed to flee the country by private jet hidden in a crate.
Two Americans who had helped Ghosn to escape were extradited to Japan earlier this year and had been sentenced to two years in prison by a Tokyo court.
Ghosn had repeatedly denied the accusations made against him in Japan, believing himself instead to be the victim of a conspiracy in which the Japanese authorities attempted to prevent Nissan’s further integration with Renault. (dpa/NAN).
