The usually staid Japanese media yesterday criticized “cowardly” former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn after the tycoon jumped bail and fled to Lebanon to avoid trial in Japan.
Ghosn is facing multiple charges of financial misconduct — all of which he denies.
“Running away is a cowardly act that mocks Japan’s justice system,” the Yomiuri Shimbun said.
By leaving the nation, Ghosn has “lost the opportunity to prove his innocence and vindicate his honor,” the newspaper said, adding that the court, his defense lawyers and immigration control officials also bore some blame in the affair.
The Tokyo Shimbun also said that Ghosn’s actions had made a mockery of the Japanese justice system.
“The defendant Ghosn insists he escaped political persecution ... but traveling abroad without permission is against the conditions of his bail and mocks the Japanese justice system,” it wrote. “There is a high probability that the trial will not be held and his argument that he wants to prove his innocence is now in question.”
Some media said that the decision to give him bail — seen by some as unusual at the time — now looks unwise.
Prosecutors had argued at the time that he was a flight risk with powerful connections, but Ghosn himself had said he wanted to be tried to prove his innocence.
One of his defense lawyers at the time said that he was such a famous face there was no chance he would be able to slip away undetected.
The Sankei Shimbun said that prosecutors believed the court had yielded to “foreign pressure” by offering him bail, amid widespread criticism in the global media of Japan’s “hostage justice system” that allows for lengthy and repeated detention.
A court in December 2018 declined prosecutors’ request to extend Ghosn’s detention by 10 days — a surprising decision as the extension is usually almost automatic.
Ghosn was bailed twice — in March last year and then after he was rearrested in April.
“All of these were rare decisions,” the Sankei Shimbun said.
The Mainichi Shimbun quoted a senior prosecutor as saying: “This is what we predicted.”
“This has ruined the prosecutors’ painstaking work” of collecting evidence in Japan and abroad against him, the prosecutor said.
The Asahi Shimbun quoted a former Nissan executive voicing his disappointment at Ghosn’s actions.
“The entrepreneur who ran Nissan for so many years and was well-known internationally turns out to be this kind of person. My jaw hit the floor. I can’t find the words to express myself,” the former executive said.
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