Justin McCurry in Tokyo, Seth Jacobson and agencies 

Carlos Ghosn, ousted Nissan boss, says he has fled ‘Japanese injustice’

Lawyers question how the executive, who had been banned from leaving Japan, had managed to escape without any of his passports
  
  

Carlos Ghosn has left Japan and arrived in Lebanon, according to media reports, but it is not clear whether he has fled or has negotiated new bail conditions.
Carlos Ghosn has left Japan and arrived in Lebanon, according to media reports, but it is not clear whether he has fled or has negotiated new bail conditions. Photograph: Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP via Getty Images

Japan is urgently investigating after former Renault-Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn fled court-imposed bail ahead of his trial on charges of financial misconduct and arrived in Lebanon where he said he would “escape injustice”.

Ghosn issued a statement on Tuesday morning in which he said he would “no longer be held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system where guilt is presumed”.

“I have not fled justice – I have escaped injustice and political persecution,” Ghosn said in the statement, adding that he could “finally communicate freely with the media, and look forward to starting next week”.

It was not clear how Ghosn, who had surrendered his passports as part of his bail conditions and barred from leaving Japan, had fled the country.

One of Ghosn’s Japanese lawyers told reporters on Tuesday that his legal team were still holding all three of his passports and that he could not have used any of them to escape Japan. The former auto executive has French and Lebanese citizenship and was born in Brazil.

Junichiro Hironaka said he had not spoken to Ghosn since last week and that he was “surprised” by his client’s arrival in Lebanon. His client’s actions were “inexcusable”, he said.

Ghosn arrived in Beirut from Turkey on a private plane, Lebanese newspaper Al Joumhouria said, adding that he was expected to hold a news conference in the coming days. “Ghosn reached Beirut, but it’s unclear how he left Japan,” Agence France-Presse quoted a Lebanese security official as saying.

(November 19, 2018) 

Ghosn is arrested by Japanese police at a Tokyo airport upon arrival in his private jet. This follows the arrest hours before of Nissan board member Greg Kelly, a key ally of Ghosn’s. Both are sent to a detention centre in Tokyo. Nissan and Mitsubishi say they will both remove Ghosn as chairman.

(November 26, 2018) 

Misubishi sacks Ghosn as chairman, following a similar move by Nissan.

(December 10, 2018) 

Prosecutors add to the charges against Ghosn and Kelly, who are accused of underreporting Ghosn’s income over five years to 2015. They are are rearrested on allegations of understating Ghosn’s income for three more years to March 2018.

(December 13, 2018) 

Renault initially decides to retain Ghosn as chairman and chief executive after finding no irregularities in his pay packages.

(December 21, 2018) 

Ghosn is re-arrested on allegations of aggravated breach of trust, accused of shifting personal investment losses to Nissan in 2008. The legal team for Kelly, who suffers from spinal stenosis and needs surgery, requests his release on bail, which is granted on 24 December after he pays 70 million yen (£507,025) in cash.

(January 8, 2019) 

Ghosn proclaims his innocence during a court hearing, his first public appearance following his arrest. A judge says his continued detention is necessary due to flight risk and the possibility he could conceal evidence.

(January 18, 2019) 

Nissan and Mitsubishi accuse Ghosn of receiving €7.8m (£6.9m) in “improper payments” from a joint venture between the Japanese carmakers.

(January 24, 2019) 

Renault appoints Jean-Dominique Senard as chairman and Thierry Bolloré as chief executive after Ghosn resigns from both roles.

(January 30, 2019) 

Ghosn accuses Nissan executives of a plot to oust him and prevent closer ties with Renault, in his first interview since his arrest in November.

(February 13, 2019) 

Renault’s board of directors votes unanimously to strip Ghosn of up to €30m (£26m) in pay and severance.

(March 6, 2019) 

Ghosn is released on bail and must live under strict bail conditions in Tokyo until his trial begins. His lawyer Motonari Otsuru quits.

(April 5, 2019) 

Ghosn is re-arrested.

(April 8, 2019) 

Nissan shareholders sack Ghosn from the company board and replace him with Renault chairman Jean-Dominique Senard. A day later Ghosn accuses Nissan executives of conspiring against him in a video.

(April 11, 2019) 

Ghosn’s lawyers condemn his latest arrest as “inhuman”, saying that it has interrupted the former Nissan chairman’s treatment for chronic kidney failure.

(April 25, 2019) 

A court in Japan grants $4.5m bail to Ghosn but he must stay in Japan and is not allowed to meet his wife, Carole, without the court’s permission.

(December 31, 2019) 

Ghosn flees court-imposed bail ahead of his trial and arrives in Lebanon. He issues a statement in which he says he will “no longer be held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system where guilt is presumed”. His escape is believed to have involved him being hidden in a musical instrument case that was then flown out of the country.

Julia Kollewe

Japanese public broadcaster NHK cited an anonymous source as saying the Japanese immigration authorities had no record of a Carlos Ghosn leaving the country, and authorities were reviewing whether he left using another name.

There is no extradition agreement between Japan and Lebanon.

Masahisa Sato, an MP from Shinzo Abe’s ruling Liberal Democrat party, said: “It was not ‘departing the country’, it was 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.”

The Tokyo prosecutor’s office had no comment when contacted about Ghosn and a Nissan spokesman declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the Lebanese embassy in Tokyo said: “We did not receive any information.”

Agnes Pannier-Runacher, a junior minister in the French government, said she was “very surprised” by Ghosn’s flight to Lebanon. She told France Inter radio that no one was above the law but Ghosn would be able to get French consular support.

Ghosn, 65, who rescued Nissan from the brink of bankruptcy two decades ago and masterminded a successful alliance with Renault, was arrested in November 2018 shortly after arriving in Japan on his private jet. He faces four charges, including hiding income and enriching himself through payments to dealerships in the Middle East.

He has consistently denied the charges and spent more than 120 days in detention before being released on bail for a second time in late April. His treatment drew international criticism and claims that prosecutors were subjecting him to “inhuman” treatment.

Japan’s justice system has been criticised at home and abroad during Ghosn’s detention for provisions that allow suspects to be held for long periods. One of the reasons used to justify his detention before he was allowed out on bail was that he was considered a flight risk.

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Ghosn’s bail conditions required him to surrender his passport and remain at a court-designated house in Tokyo preparing for his trial, which was expected to begin in April. He was forbidden from seeing his Lebanese-born wife, Carole Nahas, without special permission, and had limited internet access.

Ghosn said in a video message in April that he had been unfairly portrayed by “backstabbing” Nissan executives as “a personage of greed and a personage of dictatorship”.

He said he had been the victim of a boardroom coup, accusing former colleagues of targeting him in an attempt to derail a closer alliance between Nissan and Renault.

 

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