Tokyo (AFP)

Greg Kelly, former collaborator of Carlos Ghosn at Nissan accused like him of financial embezzlement, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday at the opening of his trial in Tokyo, where he appears without his former boss, on the run in Lebanon.

"I think that the elements will attest that I did not violate the rules" Japanese stock market, in particular declared Mr. Kelly at the opening of the trial, the day of his 64th birthday.

He had arrived at court shortly before accompanied by three of his lawyers, wearing a mask and a charcoal gray suit.

His trial is set to last around ten months and comes almost two years after his arrest in Japan, which took place on the same day as Mr. Ghosn's.

The former big boss of Renault and Nissan having escaped Japanese justice, Mr. Kelly finds himself on the front line in this trial, alongside the Japanese group, sued as a legal person.

A Nissan representative confirmed at trial Tuesday that the group will plead guilty.

Mr Kelly and Nissan are accused of illegally and knowingly failing to mention in the automaker's annual stock market reports from 2010 to 2018 total compensation of approximately 9.2 billion yen (73 million euros) that Mr. Ghosn was supposed to touch later.

- Up to ten years in prison -

Mr. Kelly has been claiming his innocence since the beginning of the case.

"I did nothing wrong," he reiterated in an interview with AFP in early September.

On these deferred payments, "Carlos Ghosn has never received anything and has never obtained the promise of anything", he added.

Mr Kelly was released on bail at Christmas 2018, after more than a month in pre-trial detention, but with a ban on leaving Japan pending trial.

He faces up to ten years in prison.

His lawyers, however, told AFP they were optimistic that he would be acquitted, despite the extremely high conviction rate (over 99%) in criminal cases in Japan.

- Frightened witnesses -

Nissan and the prosecution claim to have accumulated evidence that these future payments had been guaranteed to Mr. Ghosn.

They should therefore have been declared in the automaker's reports, under Japanese stock market rules.

Investigators have amassed an astronomical amount of documents in this case.

The defense of Mr. Kelly complains, however, that he only had access to a fraction of these documents.

Another major disadvantage: "Foreign witnesses who are very useful for Mr. Kelly do not trust the Japanese judicial system", fearing to fall into a trap and be arrested upon their arrival in Japan, like Mr. Kelly at the end of 2018 , recently lamented one of his lawyers, James Wareham, interviewed by AFP.

"They are afraid. They will not come to testify in Japan," he added.

The prosecution and the court also rejected Camp Kelly's request to allow witnesses to be heard outside Japan by videoconference.

Mr Kelly's request for simultaneous interpretation of the hearing proceedings was also denied.

The imposed choice of a consecutive interpretation has the effect of considerably lengthening the length of the trial, according to his defense.

Nissan has already agreed at the end of 2019 to pay a fine of 2.4 billion yen (nearly 20 million euros) to the Japan Financial Services Agency (FSA) for failing to mention Mr. Ghosn's deferred payments.

The Japanese manufacturer has also already agreed to pay $ 15 million to the United States in an amicable agreement with the American authorities on the same file.

Mr. Ghosn, who like Mr. Kelly claims his innocence across the board, had agreed to pay $ 1 million to the same American authorities to avoid being prosecuted in the United States on this same aspect of the case.

Mr. Kelly, for his part, had agreed to pay a fine of $ 100,000.

© 2020 AFP