The Financial Times international daily newspaper posted an article stating that Lebanon pressed for Carlos Ghosn’s return a week before the former Nissan chairman escaped from Tokyo to Beirut with the help of private security operatives, who had been planning his flight for months.
The report said that it has emerged that Lebanon’s efforts to secure his return began in October and involved a team of hired professionals, according to people with knowledge of the details. Mr Ghosn, whose passports had been seized, flew out of Osaka airport on a private jet after evading round-the-clock surveillance.
Japanese prosecutors on Thursday raided the Tokyo property where Mr Ghosn — who is accused of financial misconduct — had been held under house arrest since being released on bail in April.
The escape has caused intense embarrassment to Japan’s justice ministry and will renew criticism of the Tokyo District Court’s decision to grant Mr Ghosn bail, said one Japanese official.
Lebanese authorities made the request for Mr Ghosn’s return a year ago, but they renewed it during a visit to Beirut by Keisuke Suzuki, Japan’s state minister for foreign affairs, on December 20, when the issue was discussed at the end of a meeting with Lebanon’s president Michel Aoun.
Mr Ghosn’s flight to his mother’s native country means he will avoid standing trial in Tokyo, where he faces charges of financial misconduct relating to his time as head of the Nissan-Renault carmakers’ alliance.
The trial, which may not have begun until the autumn, could have dragged on for several years. A day after arriving in Lebanon, Mr Ghosn insisted he was not fleeing justice, but had “escaped injustice and political persecution” in Japan.
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