This archive report was first published on 2 January 2020.
Carlos Ghosn, the former CEO of Nissan and Renault, made headlines around the world when he fled Japan to avoid trial on financial misconduct charges. The fugitive executive, who has been charged with an array of financial crimes, has been on the run since December 31, 2019.
According to Agnès Pannier-Runacher, a junior economy minister in France, the country would not extradite Ghosn if he arrived in France. In an interview with the news channel BFM, she stated, “If Mr. Ghosn arrived in France, we would not extradite Mr. Ghosn because France never extradites its nationals. That’s a rule of the game.”
Ghosn, who has passports from Brazil, Lebanon, and France, has been living in France for most of his adult life. He was born in Brazil to a Lebanese family and grew up mostly in Lebanon. His lawyers in Japan have said that they held his passports, but it is unclear how he was able to escape surveillance in Japan and arrange his flights to Lebanon.
On December 31, 2019, Ghosn left Japan late Sunday aboard a business jet from Osaka to Istanbul, where he quickly switched to another plane and flew to Beirut on Monday. Turkish news outlets reported that the planes were operated by MNG Jet, a Turkish company that manages and charters business aircraft.
The Turkish authorities detained several people suspected of helping Ghosn escape, according to news reports in Turkey. Japanese prosecutors on Thursday raided Ghosn’s sprawling, two-story house in an exclusive neighborhood of central Tokyo.
While officials in Japan have expressed their outrage over his escape, Ghosn has said he would speak to the news media “starting next week.” In Lebanon, which doesn’t have an extradition treaty with Japan, Ghosn is seen as a folk hero, a favorite son who studied in France’s most prestigious schools before embracing a successful career in the automobile industry.
