Ghosn to give details on Japan escape to Beirut media next week

Former Renault-Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn is set to talk to Beirut media next Wednesday to give his account of how he managed to flee Japan just months before he was set to stand trial on charges of financial misconduct.

Ghosn fled the country to Lebanon while out on bail and many questions remained about how he managed to escape the country.

Key to his mysterious flight, Japanese media reported that the executive was carrying one of his two French passports when he fled Japan.

Public broadcaster NHK said the court had allowed him to keep a second French passport as long as it was kept “in a locked case” with the key held by his lawyers.

There were rumours that he escaped his Tokyo residence inside a wooden case for a musical instrument which was spirited out of the country on a private jet from Kansai International airport in western Japan, although his wife Carole Ghosn denied that account.

Masahisa Sato, an MP from the ruling Liberal Democratic party, described Ghosn’s actions as “an illegal departure and an escape, and this itself is a crime. Was there help extended by an unnamed country? It is also a serious problem that Japan’s system allowed an illegal departure so easily.”

Ghosn was charged in 2019 with underreporting his income, transferring Nissan funds to an account in which he had an interest and other charges for which he was potentially facing up to 15 years incarceration.

“I am now in Lebanon and will no longer be held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system where guilt is presumed, discrimination is rampant, and basic human rights are denied, in flagrant disregard of Japan’s legal obligations under international law and treaties it is bound to uphold,” Ghosn said earlier in the same week.

According to the Financial Times, Lebanon had pressed for Carlos Ghosn’s return a week before he escaped from Tokyo.

Citing people with knowledge of the details, the FT also reported that Lebanon’s efforts to secure his return reportedly began in October and involved a team of hired professionals.