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Report: Turkey questioning 7 after ex-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn flees Japan

Turkish media said authorities are questioning seven people in connection with ex-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn's escape from Japan to Lebanon. File photo by Keizo Mori/UPI
Turkish media said authorities are questioning seven people in connection with ex-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn's escape from Japan to Lebanon. File photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 2 (UPI) -- Seven people have been detained for questioning in Istanbul in connection with ex-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn's escape from Japan to Lebanon, Turkish media reported Thursday.

The Anadolu Agency, citing security sources, said police are questioning the seven as part of a probe launched by the Istanbul chief public prosecutor's office into reports that Ghosn, who was facing charges of financial mismanagement in Japan, escaped to Lebanon via Istanbul Airport.

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Among those being questioned, the agency said, were four pilots, two employees of a private ground service company and one operations director for a courier company.

Also on Thursday, Lebanese Justice Minister Albert Serhan told Japanese broadcaster NHK that he had received an arrest warrant from Interpol regarding Ghosn.

Serhan said Lebanese authorities expected to question Ghosn, but added the former executive had entered Lebanon with legitimate documentation.

It has so far been unclear how Ghosn escaped from Japan while out on bail, which he posted in April while awaiting trial on charges including breach of trust, underreporting his salary and siphoning payments from the automaker.

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He announced Tuesday that he had left the Asian nation not as a fugitive from justice but as the victim of a political persecution.

"I am now in Lebanon and will no longer be held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system where guilt is presumed, discrimination is rampant and basic human rights are denied, in flagrant disregard of Japan's legal obligations under international law and treaties it is bound to uphold," the 65-year-old former executive said in a statement. "I have not fled justice -- I have escaped injustice and political persecution."

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