The fallen magnate of the automotive industry Carlos Ghosn announced on Thursday (October 24th) that he was asking for the cancellation of the lawsuits against him in Japan, accusing prosecutors of "illegal acts" and collusion with his former employer Nissan for to make it fall.

The lawyers of the former boss of Renault and Nissan, accompanied by their client, presented their arguments Thursday during a preliminary hearing at the trial due to open in April. The indictments are "politically motivated from the beginning, fundamentally biased", and "this case should never have given rise to criminal prosecution," they denounced in a statement.

The investigation against Carlos Ghosn is "totally illegal and prejudicial," wrote Kawatsu [one of Carlos Ghosn's avovats] in another document obtained by AFP. And to denounce "an abuse of the public authority responsible for criminal prosecution for unfair purposes in a context of discrimination with respect to the race, nationality and social status of Mr. Carlos Ghosn".

>> To see on France 24: "THE DEBATE - 'Case Carlos Ghosn: justice or relentlessness?' "

A cancellation of the prosecutions claimed

The defenders of the Franco-Lebanese-Brazilian, who was the highest paid business leader of Japan, therefore demand "the cancellation of the lawsuits". They passed on to the judges and the press the elements that they believe demonstrate that their client is innocent and that he is the victim of a machination outside the rules.

There is, according to them, "multiple unlawful acts of investigation that fundamentally call into question the integrity and viability" of the charges. The man who was hailed as "the savior of Nissan" after joining the group in 1999 was arrested on November 19, 2018 when he arrived in the Japanese capital. Carlos Ghosn spent a total of 130 days in pre-trial detention.

Released on bail in the spring, he is currently under house arrest in Tokyo. A preliminary hearing is held each month. That of Thursday being the first in which the lawyers responded point by point to the charges brought by the special unit of the prosecutors office towards their client.

Procedural flaws, defense says

The Japanese court has rejected all requests to ease bail conditions, including the ban on contacting his wife. The businessman's lawyers argue that this restriction is contrary to the Japanese Constitution and international law on family separations.

Carlos Ghosn is facing four charges: two for deferred income not reported to the stock market authorities by Nissan (which is also being sued on this track), and two for aggravated breach of trust. In addition to the denial of any embezzlement advanced since always, the defense this time tries to demonstrate that the investigation itself is riddled with procedural flaws.

"The charges against Mr. Ghosn are the result of unlawful collusion between prosecutors, members of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (Meti) and Nissan officials, who have secret task force charged with seeking to artificially impute wrongdoing to Carlos Ghosn, "the statement said.

Illegal seizures

For lawyers, the objective of this maneuver was clear: "to remove Mr. Ghosn to prevent it from carrying out a reinforced integration between Nissan and Renault, which would have threatened the autonomy of one of the jewels of the industry Japanese, passed under French flag ".

Carlos Ghosn was ejected from his Nissan president and Mitsubishi Motors (3rd alliance member) seats in the days following his arrest. He then resigned from Renault, even before other investigations were conducted in France against him. He and his lawyers also accuse the Japanese investigators of having subcontracted part of their work to "consultants and Nissan executives" to obtain documents prejudicial to the former boss of Renault.

According to the defense, the prosecution also made illegal seizures (for example, the telephones of Carlos Ghosn's wife) and other irregularities, including that of having "arbitrarily arrested and charged", "all ignoring the misconduct of other Nissan executives, of Japanese nationality "and enjoying a cooperation agreement with investigators.

"If the charges are not dismissed, Carlos Ghosn is ready to fight them vigorously," promised the lawyers.

With AFP