Carlos Ghosn has been summoned to face questioning by Lebanon’s State Prosecutor Judge Ghassan Oueidat Thursday, according to a statement released through Lebanon’s national news agency.
Following his escape, international police agency Interpol released a “red notice” informing Lebanese authorities that Ghosn is wanted by Japanese police. Ghosn will have the opportunity on Thursday to testify to Oueidat about the red notice.
Japanese Minister of Justice Masako Mori released a statement hitting back at comments Carlos Ghosn made earlier Wednesday saying he felt he had to flee Japan because he wouldn’t receive a fair trial.
Mori called Ghosn’s escape from Japan “absolutely intolerable.”
“The court released defendant Ghosn on bail because he promised to comply with the bail conditions that he must not hide/run away or travel abroad, but he fled Japan and ran away from his criminal trial. Such action would not be condoned under any nation’s system.”
Mori defended Japan’s justice system, saying that although it may be different from other countries’ systems, it is sufficient to “clarify the truth in cases while guaranteeing basic individual human rights.”
“Each nation’s criminal justice system has its roots in its history and culture, being formulated and developed over a long period of time,” she said. “There is no superiority or inferiority among legal systems of different countries. The merits of a criminal justice system should be decided by assessing the entire system per se.”
She added that defendants may also file a suit for a redress of inadequate detainment conditions.
In the interview, CNN’s Richard Quest asked Carlos Ghosn what it was like in the equipment case he is reported to have been smuggled through a Japanese airport and onto a private jet out of the country in.
Ghosn initially said, “no comment.” But, he added: “Freedom, no matter the way it happens, is always sweet.”
Carlos Ghosn has said said he thinks Japanese authorities and Nissan colluded to have him arrested. On Wednesday, Ghosn said he believes they did it because other leaders at Nissan did not like his management style and didn’t agree with his vision for the future of the company and its alliance with Renault and Mitsubishi Motors.
“They didn’t like the fact that I was going to create a holding company that was going to create one company, one share, one board, but still keeping the autonomy of Nissan and the autonomy of Renault in tact,” he said.
“They didn’t like the system, so they said, ‘Why do we have to make these kinds of concessions? Let’s get rid of the guy and then we’ll keep our organization the way it is.’ And frankly, they were successful in doing that.”
He added that he does not think he took advantage of his position of leadership, as Japanese prosecutors have alleged. “Absolutely not,” he said.
Carlos Ghosn hit back at a statement released by Tokyo prosecutors saying he “failed to justify his acts” during his press conference earlier Wednesday.
“It’s laughable,” he said. “I’ve been under their control for all this time. I have zero rights. They put on me bail conditions which are very strict.”
Among his complaints:
Greg Kelly, the US businessman accused of allegedly helping Carlos Ghosn under-report his income at Nissan, remains on bail in Japan. He was detained along with Ghosn in November 2019, and Kelly was released on bail at 70 million yen ($635,000) in December 2018.
Ghosn said he and Kelly were subject to the same strict bail conditions in Japan, which limited their movements and communications. But Ghosn said he doesn’t feel he’s abandoned Kelly by fleeing to Lebanon.
“I didn’t leave Japan to hide somewhere, I left Japan because I am looking for justice and because I want to clear my name,” he said. “I will be looking for a country where I could have this case tried but with a trial respecting the rights of the defense.”
In the days following Carlos Ghosn’s escape from Japan, MNG Jet, a Turkish company that charters private jets, said a rogue employee “illegally” helped transport the auto titan to Lebanon. The company said it has filed a criminal complaint against the employee. Turkish police have also arrested seven people as part of an investigation into the plot.
Ghosn is reported to have flown through Turkey on his way to Lebanon.
“I feel very bad about it,” Ghosn said of the people who were detained.
“We knew from the beginning what are the risks involved into an operation like this. We all knew that. I knew what were my risks, I knew what were the risks of all the people who supported the operation. So we all knew that,” he said.
Carlos Ghosn, in an interview with CNN’s Richard Quest following his lengthy morning press conference, declined to go into detail or confirm reports about exactly how he made his shocking escape from Japan.
He did dispute one early account of how his departure might have been carried out — that a band came to play a holiday show at his Tokyo home and he left the house in a music box.
“The whole story is wrong. Why? Because the prosecutor now went to my apartment. There is a monitoring of all the people who are in the house and they said: ‘No.’”
However, Ghosn said he would “make no comment” on other reports that he left Tokyo via a bullet train to Osaka, and boarded a private plane at the airport there by hiding in a large equipment case.
Prosecutors in Tokyo have issued a statement rejecting many of the claims made by Carlos Ghosn during his lengthy press conference in Beirut.
In detail:
The statement from the prosecutors says:
Nearly two and a half hours after it began, Carlos Ghosn’s first press conference since his escape from Japan has come to a close.
Coming later today: Ghosn sits down with CNN Business’ Richard Quest, who is conducting an interview with the former auto executive in Beirut.
During a brief lull, one unidentified member of the press called out:
“Would you recommend a packing case as a means of travel?”
Ghosn ignored the question.
Carlos Ghosn has been speaking to the media in Beirut since 8 am ET.
In other words, this extraordinary spectacle is now in its third hour.
He spoke alone for over an hour, and has since been answering questions from the press in French, English, Portuguese and Arabic.
Carlos Ghosn is clearly the father of the alliance between Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors. And it has struggled since his arrest 14 months ago. But he thinks there is still a future for the combination.
“I think, yes, the alliance can succeed without me,” he said. “But the alliance needs to follow some rules. The alliance is not going to work with consensus [between the three companies.] And for the moment, they all think that consensus decision making is one way to make the alliance live. That’s wrong.”
And he clearly believes that Nissan has caused the alliance’s struggles since his arrest. Sales and profits at Nissan have dropped far more sharply than at the other two automakers.
“You know who’s wrong and who’s right? Look at the results,” he said. That’s the only way to know who’s right and who’s wrong in a business.”
“When I look at what happened for the last 14 months, with everything that happened, I’m not reassured about the future of the alliance,” he said.
Carlos Ghosn says that Japanese officials made a calculated decision to restrict communications with his wife, Carole Ghosn, a tactic that he says put him “on my knees.”
He told reporters:
“When I’ve seen that I couldn’t see Carole, and I didn’t have any horizon to see my wife and have a normal life, I said, ‘What’s left? What’s left? I have to leave; I have nothing here.’”
Fiat Chrysler and Renault held public merger talks in May and June of 2019 while Carlos Ghosn was in jail. But the former head of Renault said he held private talks with Fiat Chrysler before his November 2018 arrest. And he suggested without his arrest, a deal would have gotten done.
“I had contact with FCA. We had a lot of understanding, a very good dialogue,” he said. “Unfortunately I was arrested before we could come to a conclusion. But the conclusion was not very far.” He said he had planned to have a final meeting with Fiat Chrysler in January of 2019, but was in jail by the time that date came.
Fiat Chrysler dropped its merger proposal soon after it became public. It has since reached a deal to merge with Renault rival PSA Group.
“I think it’s a big waste for Renault,” he said about the Fiat Chrysler deal not getting done. “I think it’s a great opportunity for PSA.”
Carlos Ghosn has repeatedly said he didn’t think he could get a fair trial in Japan, and that is why he fled to Lebanon.
The moment he decided he had to escape? When his case was repeatedly postponed by Japanese prosecutors and he realized he wouldn’t be able to see his wife or have a normal life anytime soon.
Carlos Ghosn has made clear he didn’t expect a fair trial in Japan. But he claims to be open to alternatives.
“I would be ready to stand trial anywhere where I think I can have a fair trial,” he told reporters.
At the start of the press conference, Carlos Ghosn stated he wouldn’t talk about his dramatic escape from Japan last month.
During the question-and-answer portion, however, he was asked how he felt when he escaped.
When he was arrested in November 2018, Ghosn said “I felt I had died.”
“When I saw that I could actually escape, I came back to life,” he said.
Throughout the press conference, Carlos Ghosn has emphatically repeated how much he likes Japan and the Japanese people. Earlier, Ghosn said he had been “tainted” in the media in Japan as a “cold, greedy dictator.”
“Why am I being treated like a terrorist in Japan? Like I am going to hurt people? What did I do to deserve this?” he said.
Carlos Ghosn is comparing the challenge of clearing his name to his revival of Nissan, saying he is “used to mission impossible.”
“I don’t feel like I’m in a situation where I can’t do anything. I can,” he said. “And I want to clear my name. I am going to find a way to make the truth come out.”
He promises more details in the next few weeks about his plan.
