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TOKYO: A year after Japan learned with horror that Carlos Ghosn had given up his bail to become the world’s most famous fugitive, the fiasco and its aftermath continue to haunt the country.
Ghosn was living in a guarded Tokyo apartment awaiting trial for financial misconduct when he boarded a train in Osaka, western Japan, on December 29, 2019 with two accomplices.
READ: French investigators to question Carlos Ghosn in Lebanon
They smuggled him through customs at Kansai Airport, apparently in an instrument case, and a day later he appeared in Beirut, having changed planes in Istanbul.
The former Nissan chief, of French, Lebanese and Brazilian nationality, told an astonishing press conference from Beirut that he was forced to flee for fear of an unfair trial.
Stunned Japanese officials took days to formally respond to his escape, and their extradition requests were rejected by Lebanon because the countries do not have an applicable treaty.
Facing an arrest warrant from Interpol, Ghosn has remained effectively trapped in Lebanon, even as others face a court over their links to his case.
In mid-September, the trial began against his former Nissan colleague Greg Kelly, also released on bail in Tokyo when Ghosn escaped.
Kelly is accused of illegally and deliberately withholding payments of around 9.2 billion yen ($ 89 million at the current rate) promised by Nissan to Ghosn upon retirement.
Kelly, who like Ghosn denies any wrongdoing, faces 10 years in prison if convicted, and some have claimed the escape would make prosecutors more determined to secure a conviction.
“Dismissing the charges would be a devastating loss of face that would allow Ghosn to sing from his hiding place in Beirut,” Stephen Givens, a Tokyo-based corporate lawyer, wrote in the Nikkei Asian Review in October.
“Ghosn’s escape sent prosecutors down a tree from which they can no longer descend. Don’t expect a happy ending,” he added.
JAPAN REVIEWING BAIL SYSTEM
Others in the saga also face legal action, including alleged accomplices in Ghosn’s escape, former Green Beret Michael Taylor and his son Peter, who are fighting extradition from the United States to the United States. Japan.
And in Istanbul, a lawsuit continues against Turkish employees of a private jet company that was hired to aid in Ghosn’s escape.
In Japan, the saga continues to cast a long shadow.
READ: Ghosn ‘fled by high-speed train’, Japan vows to strengthen borders
The Justice Department has launched a review of the country’s bail system with a view to strengthening it, possibly including the introduction of an electronic monitoring bracelet system.
Ironically, at one point, while attempting to secure a bond, Ghosn offered to wear a watch bracelet, but was turned away as he was not yet part of Japan’s bond system.
There is also a debate over the country’s legal system, and critics’ assertion that Japan uses “hostage justice” – long detention of suspects before laying charges, allegedly in order to secure criminal charges. confession.
Prosecutors in Japan can detain a suspect for up to 23 days on each count they are investigating and can interview a detainee without a lawyer during that time.
This leaves suspects “extremely vulnerable,” said Megumi Wada, a former member of Ghosn’s defense team in Japan and a researcher for the Japanese Bar Federation (JFBA).
But comprehensive reform seems unlikely, with the JFBA largely ignored by the government and carefully avoiding mentioning the Ghosn case, instead calling for respect for rights protected by the Japanese constitution.
In November, Ghosn won a victory when a UN task force on arbitrary detention concluded that his arrest and detention in Japan had been “fundamentally unjust”, a view described as “totally unacceptable” by Tokyo.
Ghosn is currently out of the reach of Japanese courts and leads a relatively quiet life, mostly in his Beirut home, although he recently published a book outlining his version of his case.
He and Nissan continue to pursue each other through various lawsuits.
A lawsuit in a US $ 95 million lawsuit by the automaker against Ghosn has opened in Japan, with Nissan seeking compensation for what it called “years of misconduct and fraudulent activity.”
Ghosn, who is also under investigation in France, is asking for 15 million euros ($ 18 million) from Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors for abusive termination of his contract in proceedings in the Netherlands, and is waging a similar battle against the former employer Renault.
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