BEIRUT – Carlos Ghosn went on the attack against Japan’s criminal justice system less than two weeks after becoming the world’s most famous fugitive following his daring escape to Lebanon.
At a news conference here on Wednesday, Ghosn unleashed a point-by-point attack on the validity of the investigation that culminated in his arrest in Japan for alleged financial crimes.
Wearing a blue suit and red tie and speaking defiantly, Ghosn said he doubted he would get a fair trial if he had remained in Japan. He said he fled to Lebanon to clear his name.
"You are going to die in Japan or you are going to have to get out," he told reporters crowded into Lebanon's seaside Beirut press syndicate.
Ghosn said he had been treated "brutally and ruthlessly" by Japanese prosecutors, who threatened to take action against his family if he did not confess to their accusations.
"I was brutally taken from my world as I knew it," the former head of Nissan and Renault said. "I was ripped from my family, my friends, from my communities, and from Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi."
The news conference was Ghosn’s first public appearance since he jumped bail in Japan and escaped to his childhood home of Lebanon. Ghosn spoke for more than an hour before taking a break ahead of a question-and-answer session.
"I felt that I was a hostage in a country that I had served for 17 years," he said. "For 17 years I was considered a role model in Japan. All of a sudden prosecutors in Japan [characterized me as a] 'cold, greedy, dictator.' It's wrong. I like Japan. I like the people of Japan. Why Japan is repaying me with evil, for the good that I did to the country, I don't understand."
Ghosn, 65, is now an international fugitive after fleeing Japan, where he is indicted on four counts of financial misconduct during his time at Nissan. Ghosn’s trial was to begin as early as this spring.
He said he was working to integrate Renault and Nissan while respecting the autonomy of both. But he said there was mistrust. "Some of my Japanese friends thought that the only way to get rid of the influence of Renault on Nissan was to get rid of me," he said.
FCA merger
Ghosn also said he was in the process of negotiating a merger with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles before his arrest.
He said he was talking with FCA Chairman John Elkann, who was favorable to the Italian-American automaker joining the Renault-Nissan alliance. "We had very good dialog," Ghosn said.
A meeting with FCA was planned in January, two months after his November 2018 arrest at Tokyo airport, but "unfortunately I was arrested."
FCA is now about to merge with France's PSA Group. "How can you lose this huge opportunity?" he asked. “It’s unbelievable that this has happened."
FCA's planned merger with PSA is a "great opportunity" for PSA but a "great waste" for Renault, Ghosn said.
Ghosn said that he was brought down by a "plot" cooked up at Nissan, many of whose executives he named publicly at the news conference.
"Who was part of the plot? Obviously, (Hiroto) Saikawa was part of the plot, Hari Nada is part of the plot, and (Toshiaki) Onuma because they showed. But there are many other people. (Masakazu) Toyoda, a member of the board, was the link between the board of Nissan and the authorities."
Ghosn said: "My unimaginable ordeal is the result of a handful of unscrupulous, vindictive individuals. The charges against me are baseless. There is no democratic country I know where you go to jail for this kind of accusation, even if they are correct."
