Japan has hit back at Carlos Ghosn after the former Nissan boss’s criticisms of the country’s justice system after his dramatic escape to Lebanon, as Beirut prosecutors issued a travel ban for the fugitive.
Masako Mori, Japan’s justice minister, on Thursday accused Ghosn of making “abstract, unclear or baseless assertions” about the Japanese criminal justice system, and said his flight was unjustified.
Lebanese prosecutors issued a travel ban for Ghosn after an Interpol red notice requesting his arrest, the Associated Press reported. Ghosn, who headed both Nissan and Renault before his arrest, was also questioned by the authorities in Lebanon over a 2008 visit to Israel, deemed an enemy of the Lebanese state, for the French carmaker.
Ghosn railed against his treatment by Japanese prosecutors at a press conference on Wednesday in Beirut, at which he tried to defend his reputation and disprove corruption allegations, including under-reporting his income from Nissan.
It was his first public appearance since fleeing Tokyo on 29 December, but Ghosn refused to give further details of his escape. The have been reports that he was smuggled through airport security in an audio equipment case. Ghosn is thought to have flown by private jet to Turkey, before switching to another plane to Beirut in an operation reportedly aided by former members of US special forces.
Among his many claims, Ghosn said Japan’s government officials had colluded with Nissan to bring the charges in a “Pearl Harbor” plot, that the case against him was “rigged” and that he was a victim of “hostage justice”, with long periods of detention and a ban on seeing his wife, Carole.
His escape, despite supposed constant supervision, has left Tokyo scrambling to respond. It has also put a spotlight on Japan’s justice system, which has been criticised as heavy-handed and unfair by human rights groups.
In a second statement on Ghosn within 24 hours, Mori said descriptions of “hostage justice” were “off the mark”.
She defended Japan’s 99% conviction rate, saying prosecutors only brought cases where they were almost certain of success. The system was designed “to avoid an innocent person to suffer from the burden of bearing judicial expenses”, Mori said. “The basic human rights of a suspect are duly taken into account by giving adequate break to the suspect during the interrogation.”
