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A few days after fleeing Japan and joining Lebanon, Carlos Ghosn returned at length to the accusations of financial embezzlement of which he is the subject and his statements particularly displeased Japanese justice.
In two and a half hours of an emotional monologue, says our Tokyo correspondent , Frédéric Charles , Carlos Ghosn remained very vague on the aggravated breach of trust charges which earned him two of his four charges. Nissan estimates the cost of these financial embezzlements at more than $ 300 million.
" If he is innocent, other countries than Japan can guarantee him a fairer justice, then why did he not choose France or the United States? "Asks a Tokyo prosecutor to the news agency Kyodo News, who does not hide his lack of confidence in the Lebanese judicial system.
A " political Pearl Harbor "
" His flight to Lebanon is in itself a crime, " said justice minister Masako Mori. To defend the detention of Carlos Ghosn, the minister underlines that a suspect in Japan is arrested only under an arrest warrant issued by a judge who studied the case, which is not always the case in d 'other countries.
Government Secretary General Yoshihide Suga says the Japanese justice system protects human rights. Carlos Ghosn appeared full of resentment against Japan. He said he was the victim of a " political Pearl Harbor ".
Ghosn before a Lebanese prosecutor
A few hours after this first high-profile public appearance, indicates our correspondent in Beirut , Paul khalifeh , Carlos Ghosn will be heard this Thursday, January 9 by the Lebanese prosecutor on the arrest warrant issued by Interpol at the request of the Japanese authorities. He is likely to be released and the risk of extradition is practically nil.
The deposed automotive tycoon will also be questioned about his visit to Israel in 2008, a country with which Lebanon has been technically at war since 1948. Three Lebanese lawyers presented a note to the prosecution against Carlos Ghosn for " Entry into enemy country and violation of the boycott of Israel law ", considered as crimes punishable by prison in Lebanon.
Interviewed by journalists on Wednesday, Carlos Ghosn explained that he actually went to Tel Aviv as a Frenchman, in the context of his professional activities as CEO of Renault.
The Lebanese press naturally devoted generous coverage to the first public intervention of the most famous fugitive in the world. The French daily, L'Orient-Le Jour , devotes its front page to him with an evocative title: " Carlos Ghosn proclaims his innocence before the whole planet ".
An-Nahar, an Arabic-language newspaper, repeats a sentence uttered by the ex-boss of Renault-Nissan to explain his decision to leave Japan: " I had no choice but to run away ".