Arab News Japan

TOKYO: Former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn says Lebanon can go in whatever direction it chooses to escape from what he says are its “political challenges, financial challenges, economic challenges and existential challenges.”

“The situation of the country is difficult,” he told an online press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Tokyo. “The country is facing many challenges, but also this is a situation where everything is open. Lebanon can go in every direction possible from now on.”

“There is a presidential election that will take place on January 9, so we know who’s going to be at the helm of the country, and I’m sure that whenever this person will be elected, a lot of goodwill and talents – because there are a lot of talents in Lebanon and Lebanese people outside Lebanon – they will support this new administration in order to get the country out of trouble.”

“So, today’s situation is very bad, but there are a lot of options to shore the situation up and to put Lebanon where it should be, which means at the best level of the Middle Eastern countries.”

Ghosn, however, cannot leave Lebanon as Japan has issued an international arrest warrant for him after his dramatic escape from Japan in 2019 while under house arrest. Ghosn was detained for alleged financial crimes, which he completely denies. He is a vehement critic of Japan’s legal system that doesn’t allow defendants access to legal assistance during interrogation.

“The Japanese are extending their ‘hostage justice’ system to a foreign country,” Ghosn says. Lebanon has said it is willing to try Ghosn in Lebanese courts if the Japanese authorities provide them with the evidence against him, but they have refused all such requests.

“They don’t want to send it because they know the whole thing is fake,” Ghosn says. “That means this whole thing is made up.” Ghosn says he was a victim of a corporate coup by Nissan with the aid of public prosecutors.

“I will be here (Lebanon) for a while, but I do not despair that one day Japan will have to change the system. People ask me, ‘Didn’t I suspect something like this?’ Yes, I suspected some adversity. I suspect some animosity, but not something as brutal and as bad violent as what happened, with all the bad consequence it had.”