Japan said Monday it would pursue criminal prosecution of former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn despite his dramatic escape from the country, Report informs, citing foreign media.
Speaking to reporters at her Tokyo office, Justice Minister Masako Mori said Ghosn’s attempt to avoid trial was unlawful.
“It is clear that we don’t have any records of the defendant departing Japan; hence we believe that he left Japan illegally,” Mori said.
Ghosn, the former chief of the Nissan-Renault auto alliance, fled the country a week earlier despite being subject to stringent bail conditions. Ghosn was arrested at Tokyo airport in November 2018, on charges related to hiding income and using company funds for personal gain.
Last January, Ghosn said he had been “wrongly accused” and “unfairly detained.”
Ghosn was reportedly smuggled out of Tokyo by a private security company and used Turkish private jets to fly to Istanbul and then to Beirut, where he spent some of his childhood. Japanese public broadcaster NHK said last week that while out on bail, Ghosn had been allowed to carry a French passport.