How Carlos Ghosn escaped from Japan to Lebanon

On Thursday, Lebanon received the “red badge” of the right Carlos Ghosn From Interpol, while the Japanese authorities carried out a raid on his home in Tokyo, while Turkey arrested Several people shortly after opening an investigation to find out how the former CEO of the "Renault-Nissan" group managed to escape to Lebanon via Istanbul. News about this astonishing case has been circulating since Ghosn fled Japan, where he is being prosecuted, and arrived in Beirut, and with it questions about the mysterious circumstances of his “journey” aggravate. It is noteworthy that Carlos Ghosn holds Lebanese, French and Brazilian citizenship.

How could this internationally known figure of the auto industry evade the Japanese authorities without leaving a trail or being arrested?

At the official level, we do not yet know which method Leave In it, Carlos Ghosn, Tokyo, where he has been residing under strict procedures since leaving prison last April, in return for a financial guarantee.

Will we learn more about this issue during the press conference that Ghosn intends to organize, as announced by one of his lawyers, Wednesday January 8th in Beirut?

Carlos Ghosn's first appearance in Lebanon sipping wine

Several sources indicate that Ghosn left Japanese territory on a private plane that landed in Turkey before continuing on its way to Beirut, its final destination. And Dogan News Agency stated that the Turkish authorities had arrested and placed in pretrial detention seven people as part of the investigation, including four pilots, who are suspected of helping Ghosn reach Lebanon from an airport in Istanbul.

A second French passport?

However, according to Japanese state television, NHK, the Japanese immigration authorities did not find any trace, mechanical evidence, or a video tape that proves that Carlos Ghosn left Japanese soil. For its part, the Lebanese authorities said that Ghosn entered Lebanon legally on Monday.

A source in the Lebanese presidency indicated that the former CEO of the Renault-Nissan group entered his ancestral country with a French passport and a Lebanese identity card, while Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil made it clear that he did not know anything about the circumstances of Ghosn's departure to Japan.

As for his Japanese lawyer, Junichiro Hironaka, he confirmed that the defense team defending Carlos Ghosn still retains his three passports (a Lebanese, a French and a Brazilian one), in accordance with the terms of his release against financial bail, as decided by the Public Prosecution.

“All journalists in Japan are trying to answer these questions,” says Michael Bean, France 24's correspondent in Japan.

For their part, Japanese prosecutors suspect that Ghosn used a second French passport he had in his possession.

Ghosn's escape was planned several weeks ago?

And the American newspaper, “The Wall Street Journal”, wrote, quoting undisclosed sources, that the escape of Carlos Ghosn took place several weeks after a planning process carried out by his relatives, and added that a musical group had smuggled him from Japan with the help of Japanese.

According to the same newspaper, flight data indicate that a Bombardier plane left Kansai International Airport near Osaka (a Japanese city west of Tokyo) on Sunday night at about eleven and ten minutes to land on Monday morning at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul.

And the same newspaper added that “a private and smaller plane, belonging to the same company, IMG Jet Havasilik, based in Turkey, departed Ataturk Airport towards Lebanon, about half an hour after the first landing.”

For its part, the Swedish website "Flight Radar 24", which specializes in international flights, wrote that the private plane landed at Rafic Hariri International Airport on Monday, December 30, 2019, shortly after XNUMX:XNUMX am local time.

cache Inside a box to transport music instruments?

In addition, the Lebanese private channel, MTV, presented a story similar to the scenarios of Hollywood films, according to the illegal smuggling of Carlos Ghosn from his home in Tokyo, hidden in a box carrying music instruments.

The same channel added that the escape was carried out by the men of the “Para-Military” band, who disguised themselves as musicians who came to Carlos Ghosn’s house to celebrate a birthday party. After the celebration ended, they smuggled him while he was hidden inside a box dedicated to transporting music instruments. He was taken directly to a secondary airport despite the heavy security imposed on his house by the police and the presence of 24-hour surveillance cameras.

This information, which is difficult for us to confirm, and which was reported by other international media such as the British newspaper "The Guardian", was denied by Carlos Ghosn's family.

Sources in the Japanese aviation field, reported by the official Japanese TV, NHK, indicated that travelers who board private planes are not exempted from immigration and customs procedures during the outbound trip, but that checking and monitoring baggage using laser beams is not done automatically, but only as needed.

In the French press, the daily “Le Parisien” wrote that Carlos Ghosn may have “benefited from collusion” or assistance to escape from Japan, although “the circumstances of his escape are not yet known.”

For its part, the Guardian newspaper added that Ghosn benefited from assistance provided by "Lebanese officials" who may also have received an order from political officials to "facilitate" the process of his return to Lebanon.

He will not be tried in absentia in Japan

This, and in a statement published last Tuesday, Carlos Ghosn expressed his joy to be in Lebanon, saying, "I am no longer a hostage of a biased Japanese judicial system where guilt is presumed."

Since his arrest in November 2018, the lawyers defending him and his family alike have been denouncing the conditions of his detention and the manner in which the Japanese judiciary is conducting the investigation.

Carlos Ghosn's lawyer said about his client's escape, "Of course, this is something that he cannot forgive because it represents a violation of the terms of his release on bail, and it is against Japanese law, but at the same time, to say that I do not understand his feeling, this is another story."

Stephen Evans, a US attorney based in Tokyo, added: “He destroyed all the ties he had with Japan. He will find himself at a dead end” and will have to “spend all the remaining years of his life in Lebanon.”

and realize Carlos Ghosn Lebanese law does not allow the authorities of his country to extradite any Lebanese citizen to a foreign country, while the Lebanese General Security indicated that there is no “any prosecution against him.”

This, and Constantin Simon, a France 24 correspondent in Tokyo, explained that “Japanese law does not allow the accused to be tried in absentia. There is also no agreement between Lebanon and Japan to extradite the accused from the two countries. This means that there will be no trial of Carlos Ghosn here in Japan."

And the Lebanese Minister of Justice, Albert Sarhan, announced Thursday, according to the official National News Agency, that "the Discriminatory Public Prosecution received what is known as a 'red notice' from Interpol regarding the Carlos Ghosn file."

He explained that "the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Justice have accompanied the Ghosn file from its beginnings, and in the absence of a recovery agreement between the Lebanese and Japanese states, and within the framework of the principle of reciprocity, which is a legal principle, we will apply the procedures of Lebanese internal laws."