Japanese, Turkish Prosecutors Begin Probes Into Ghosn’s Escape
Officials from both countries are trying to figure out how the former Nissan chairman got away
Japanese and Turkish authorities have started the early stages of probes in both countries into the circumstances of former auto executive Carlos Ghosn’s flight from bail in Tokyo to Lebanon.
Japanese prosecutors went through the house where Mr. Ghosn had been living in Tokyo before fleeing the country. The visit, though, was one of the few outward signs that officials there were trying to figure out how he got away.
As of Thursday, no Japanese government official responsible for the Ghosn case had issued any public statement on the matter. Prosecutors didn’t answer the phone, a foreign ministry official declined to comment and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was on vacation.
Turkish prosecutors, meanwhile, have launched an investigation into how Mr. Ghosn made a stopover at Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport unbeknown to Turkish authorities, according to Turkish officials.
Turkish prosecutors have detained seven people in connection with the investigation, the officials said, including four pilots, an airline manager and two ground personnel.
The investigations come as authorities in Lebanon received an Interpol arrest notice for the former Nissan Motor chairman, according to a justice ministry statement posted on the official Lebanese state news agency.
An Interpol Red Notice isn’t an international arrest warrant, and member countries aren’t required to arrest an individual under notice. But the alert could impede Mr. Ghosn’s ability to travel, as other Interpol member states could provisionally arrest him on their soil. In that case, Japan might seek to extradite Mr. Ghosn if it holds an extradition treaty with the country in which he’s arrested.
At a three-story, cream-colored house in one of Tokyo’s highest-priced areas, two blocks away from a French bakery Mr. Ghosn patronized, authorities holed up inside for several hours and, when they came out, declined to say what they were looking for.
The trial Mr. Ghosn had been expected to face in Tokyo this year now looks as if it will never happen because Lebanon has no extradition treaty with Japan.
One reason for Tokyo’s official silence is Mr. Ghosn’s timing. The first word of his escape came on the morning of Dec. 31 Japan time, just as the nation was entering its most important holiday, the New Year’s break. The nation mostly shuts down for the first few days of the year, with people traveling to visit family and enjoy special New Year’s dishes.
There were signs authorities weren’t in a hurry to interrupt their vacations for the sake of Ghosn postmortems. A spokesman for Kansai International Airport near Osaka said on Thursday that prosecutors and police hadn’t contacted the airport to seek its cooperation, although he said he didn’t know whether employees were individually contacted. The Wall Street Journal and some Japanese media reported that a long-range Bombardier business jet left the Kansai airport on Sunday night and landed in Turkey Monday morning—matching what is known of Mr. Ghosn’s movements en route to Lebanon.
The airport itself hasn’t checked with employees who were on duty on Sunday because it hasn’t been confirmed that Mr. Ghosn was on the plane headed for Turkey, said spokesman Kenji Takanishi. He said passengers and crew of private jets must go through immigration and customs inspections. “We are all puzzled about how he could go through the checks,” Mr. Takanishi said.
Mr. Ghosn’s abrupt departure carries some advantages for Japan. A lengthy trial would have distracted Nissan and dredged up old disputes at a time when the car maker is trying to move on and recover from a severe business downturn.
Although Japanese prosecutors enjoy a conviction rate of more than 99%, this case was looking harder than most. Mr. Ghosn denied all wrongdoing, and in Junichiro Hironaka he had found one of the country’s most tenacious and successful defense lawyers. Many of the key witnesses were overseas—an unusual situation for Japanese prosecutors—and at least one key witness in Oman told prosecutors he didn’t know of any wrongdoing by Mr. Ghosn, according to people familiar with the matter.
Mr. Ghosn’s escape in violation of his bail terms—he is forfeiting nearly $14 million in bail money—allows prosecutors to argue he must have been guilty without having to prove it in court. “The defendant has of his own volition thrown away the opportunity to prove his innocence and restore his honor,” said the conservative Yomiuri newspaper in a commentary. For his part, Mr. Ghosn said he wasn’t escaping justice but rather an unjust and biased prosecution. Mr. Ghosn has French, Brazilian and Lebanese nationality and holds passports for all three countries.
Mr. Hironaka, the defense lawyer, expressed understanding for his client’s impatience to be free. He said Mr. Ghosn was frustrated at prosecutors’ tactics in the case, such as refusing to share potentially exculpatory Nissan emails.
Even Japanese media didn’t necessarily view the case as top news. The Asahi newspaper, one of the top national dailies, led its Jan. 1 edition with a report on another legal case, involving a lawmaker accused of taking bribes from a would-be casino operator, relegating the Ghosn case to No. 2 status. Mr. Ghosn also got second billing in the Nikkei business daily, which made its top story an analysis of capitalism’s troubles.
Among the seven people detained by Turkish authorities is a manager of MNG Jet Havacilik AS, the business-jet company that allegedly transported Mr. Ghosn from Japan to Lebanon via Istanbul, according to Turkish officials. Calls to MNG Jet weren’t answered on Thursday. An official at MNG Jet’s parent company, MNG Sirketler Grubu Holding AS, declined to comment.
Turkish government officials have said they found no trace in official records of Mr. Ghosn making a recent stopover in Turkey. It couldn’t be determined whether Mr. Ghosn traveled under an alias or eluded customs clearance when he transited through Istanbul.