During a long and detailed press conference in Beirut, the former president of the alliance of Nissan and Mitsubishi, Carlos Ghosn, who made a dramatic escape from his house arrest in Japan last month, looked very angry and opened fire on the Japanese judicial authorities.

During the conference, Ghosn claimed that his colleagues at Nissan and prosecutors were participating in a conspiracy aimed at keeping him away from his work, to prevent the imminent merger with the French car company Renault.

Ghosn denied the allegations against him, which include not being informed of his income, and his misuse of the company money, and said that he was subjected to ill-treatment during his solitary confinement, as he underwent investigations that sometimes lasted eight hours per day, without the presence of any lawyer.

The assumption that he was guilty, and the pressures exerted on him by the Japanese investigators to confess, convinced him that there were no chances of him getting a fair trial, and for this he decided to flee the state.

Ghosn may be guilty of his financial behavior, but it highlights the darker aspects of Japan's judicial system.

Anyone who knows the Japanese judicial system well, realizes that Ghosn's allegations are not far from the truth.

Laws in Japan are used as weapons against targeted persons, and are not applied fairly. One example of this is the system known as a "judicial hostage", which consists in keeping the accused in detention until he is admitted guilty and signs his confessions. Prosecutors often compel the accused to do so, without any lawyer present.

Given their realization that all matters tend to be in the best interests of prosecutors, and that they can remain in detention for long periods, even before their trial, many innocent defendants are forced to confess. Ghosn spent about 120 days in detention.

In the late 1980s, a very successful head of company, Heromaza Iso, was accused of bribery. Despite intense pressure to confess, the man was able to challenge the prosecution authorities by continuing to refuse to plead guilty. After nearly a decade of judicial suffering, he was acquitted by a three-year suspended prison sentence in 2003.

In 2010, he published a book called “Where is the Judiciary?”, Which is a strong condemnation of the regime that rejects the presumption of innocence, and that the accused are forced to confess to being forced. Perhaps Ghosn wanted to avoid this fate. The accused is held in Japan for 23 days, but this period can be renewed indefinitely, as judges usually give prosecutors room for suspicion. In April 2019, about 1,000 lawyers and judicial experts submitted a petition to the Ministry of Justice, calling for an end to this outdated system.

Although Ghosn made a dramatic escape, ordinary Japanese citizens remain vulnerable to their judicial system, which has come under heavy criticism from civil society organizations, lawyers, and the media, but entrenched interests are accelerating to defend this system, but it is time to put an end to this The covenant, in which prosecutors are forced to civil liberties.

Jeff Kingston: Director of Asian Studies at Temple American University

Ordinary Japanese citizens remain vulnerable to their judicial system, which has come under heavy criticism from civil society organizations.

- In April 2019, about 1,000 lawyers and judicial experts submitted a petition to the Ministry of Justice, calling for an end to this outdated system.

- 120

One day, Ghosn spent her in detention. He said that he was mistreated during his solitary confinement.