Ex-Nissan chief executive Carlos Ghosn was spirited on charter flights from Japan to Istanbul, Turkey, and from there to Beirut — an escape made possible with the help of an airline employee who falsified records.
Ghosn slipped out of his Tokyo home moments after round-the-clock surveillance of his residence stopped on Sunday last week, Japan’s Sankei reported yesterday.
A private security company hired by Nissan Motor Co had been closely monitoring Ghosn while he was out on bail, the newspaper said, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
Photo: AFP
The surveillance ended after Ghosn’s lawyer threatened the company with a lawsuit, it said.
Security camera footage reportedly showed that Ghosn simply walked out of his Tokyo home hours before fleeing the country.
Details have emerged on Ghosn’s path to freedom that allowed him to jump US$14 million bail, seemingly under the noses of Japanese authorities, and evade charges of financial misconduct that could carry a jail sentence of up to 15 years.
TURKISH CONNECTION
Details also emerged about the route Ghosn took to Lebanon, where he grew up and is considered something of a national hero.
Turkish airline company MNG Jet said that two of its airplanes were used illegally in Ghosn’s escape, first flying him from Osaka, Japan, to Istanbul, and then on to Beirut, where he arrived on Monday and has not been seen since.
It said a company employee had admitted to falsifying flight records so that Ghosn’s name did not appear on them, adding that he acted “in his individual capacity” without MNG Jet’s knowledge.
Lebanese authorities have said Ghosn entered the country legally on a French passport, though he had been required to surrender all three of his passports to his lawyers under terms of his bail.
Interpol issued a wanted notice on Thursday for Ghosn, but Japan has no extradition treaty with Lebanon and it appeared unlikely he would be handed over.
The airplane carrying Ghosn landed at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport, which is closed to commercial flights and used only for cargo and private flights, the Turkish Ministry of the Interior said.
“A transfer occurred in the cargo section” of the airport, ministry spokesman Ismail Catakli said. “In this way, Turkey was used as a transit point.”
A cargo company employee was aboard the flight to Beirut and immediately returned to Istanbul aboard the same jet, Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper said.
ARRESTED
The employee was one of seven people detained by Turkish authorities investigating how Ghosn passed through Turkey.
Two were released on Friday, while the five others were ordered arrested, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.
Lebanese Minister of Justice Albert Serhan told The Associated Press in an interview that Lebanon “will carry out its duties,” suggesting for the first time that Ghosn might be brought in for questioning.
On Thursday, Ghosn issued a statement — his second this week — seeking to distance his Lebanese wife and family from any role in his escape.
“The allegations in the media that my wife Carole and other members of my family played a role in my departure from Japan are false and misleading. I alone organized my departure. My family played no role,” he said.
Ghosn’s lawyer in Japan yesterday said that he felt outraged and betrayed by his client’s escape, but also expressed an understanding for his feelings of not being able to get a fair trial.
Referring to Japan’s judicial system, he said: “I was betrayed, but the one who betrayed me is not Carlos Ghosn.”
Takano described how Ghosn had been barred from seeing his wife, in what Takano called a violation of human rights, and that Ghosn worried whether he would get a fair trial because of prosecutors’ leaks to the media.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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