Carlos Ghosn slams Nissan, Japan in 1st appearance after escape

Jan. 8 (UPI) -- In his first public appearance since leaving Japan amid fraud accusations, former auto executive Carlos Ghosn said Wednesday he was "brutally" removed by a "rigged" Japanese justice system.

The former Renault and Nissan leader told reporters in a news conference in Lebanon, which has no extradition treaty with Japan, that the charges were a bid to stop him from integrating the two automakers.

"That investigation was never about finding the truth," Ghosn said, adding that the case was "predetermined" to remove him from both companies.

"I was brutally taken from my world as I knew it," he added. "I was ripped from my family, my friends, from my communities, and from Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi."

Ghosn was arrested in Japan in 2018 for financial misconduct and temporarily held in custody. He was charged with under-reporting his salary at Nissan and personally profiting from company resources. He's also under investigation in France, where Renault is headquartered.

After his release on bond, he left Japan last month in an elaborate escape -- in which he hid inside a case too large for airport scanning machines and departed on a private jet. In Turkey, he boarded a flight to Beirut.

Ghosn said Wednesday he had little choice but to leave because Nissan and Japanese prosecutors were working to convict him.

"The collusion between Nissan and the prosecutor is everywhere," he said, stating that the charges should not have led to an arrest. "There is no democratic country I know where you go to jail for these kinds of accusations, even if they were right."

Ghosn appeared at the news conference with his wife Carole, who is wanted on a Japanese arrest warrant on suspicion of giving false testimony last year. She called the warrant retaliation for Ghosn's escape.