Three French magistrates landed Sunday evening in Beirut (Lebanon) to continue their investigations in the investigation conducted in Nanterre targeting Carlos Ghosn, former boss of the Renault Nissan alliance, AFP learned from a source familiar with the matter.

The Nanterre magistrates have planned to stay until Thursday in Beirut, where they must notably hear witnesses, said the close source.

This trip paves the way for a possible change in the status of Carlos Ghosn, who has been living in Beirut since his escape from Japan at the end of 2019. In concrete terms, French justice can ask the Lebanese prosecutor to "notify the charges" to Carlos Ghosn - the equivalent of an indictment in France – or issue an arrest warrant against him.

Witnesses interviewed

This is the second trip by French magistrates in this case: last June, Carlos Ghosn was heard in free hearing for five days, for the investigations targeting him in Nanterre, but also in Paris, as part of a letter rogatory international.

At the end of this hearing, his lawyers said he was "happy" to have been able to "explain his position".

However, he refused to answer questions based on a hard drive, which he believes to have been “stolen in Lebanon by Nissan” and “perhaps modified”, according to his interview published in

Le Parisien

on February 12.

According to another source familiar with the matter at AFP, the hearings of witnesses, which are to take place this week in Lebanon, could be linked to this hard drive.

The former car tycoon is targeted in France by two legal proceedings: in Paris, for the consulting services concluded by RNVB, the Dutch subsidiary embodying the Renault-Nissan alliance, with the former French Minister of Justice Rachida Dati and the criminologist Alain Bauer and in Nanterre, in particular for misuse of corporate assets and money laundering.

In Nanterre, investigators are keenly interested in nearly 15 million euros in payments considered suspicious between RNBV and the distributor of the French car manufacturer in Oman, Suhail Bahwan Automobiles (SBA).

Forced to stay in Lebanon

"They did not find a single financial flow from Renault or Nissan that incriminates me," retorted Carlos Ghosn, to

Parisian.

Justice also suspects him of having drawn personal benefit from a sponsorship agreement between Renault and the establishment which manages the Palace of Versailles, by organizing two evenings there, which he disputes.

Targeted by an arrest warrant from Interpol, the former businessman, 67 years old and of Lebanese, French and Brazilian nationalities, has been forced to stay in Lebanon since his incredible flight from Japan in December 2019. Arrested in November 2018 in Tokyo, he had justified his escape by claiming to have wanted to "escape injustice", denouncing a "plot" by the Japanese authorities.

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Carlos Ghosn case: An ex-collaborator at Nissan pleads his innocence during his trial in Tokyo

  • Beirut

  • Justice

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  • Renault

  • Carlos Ghosn

  • Lebanon

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