Khaldon Azhari, Tokyo

The drama surrounding the arrest of Carlos Ghosn, former boss of motor giants Nissan and Renault, has yet to reach its climax. Yet the plot continues to thicken with each new development.

On Monday, Ghosn’s defense lawyers unveiled court submissions highlighting the circumstances in which the 65-year-old executive was arrested and subsequently held in detention.

“We believe that Mr. Carlos Ghosn is innocent. We believe that the arrest and the prosecution efforts thus far are illegal and therefore Mr. Ghosn should be immediately released,” the head of his defense team, Junichiro Hironaka, said during a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan in Tokyo on Monday.

Hironaka claimed that Nissan wanted to kick out Carlos Ghosn from the company and therefore put together a team dedicated to searching around for something that would justify them to do that.

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“This prosecution motion wasn’t initiated because the prosecution side believed that Mr. Ghosn had committed an illegal act. Fundamentally there is a problem with this being treated as a criminal act,” he said.

Hironaka further said that the prosecutor's office is supposed to be acting in the public good for everyone and not behalf of a specific corporation.

“From the investigation level, there were various problems and mistakes with this case. Furthermore, the Japanese persecution office can’t reach overseas so they rely on Nissan employees to go into Mr. Ghosn’s offices and residences and removed objects illegally,” he said.

Oman and Lebanon

Hironaka said there is no evidence to support the alleged wrongdoing claim that Nissan made payments to SBA in Oman, and Ghosn re-directed that money to himself or his family.

“The amounts that were paid by Nissan matched exactly the amounts due to SBA,” he said.

The lawyer had a similar response to the reports connecting some donation by Ghosn to a school in Lebanon that would somehow benefit himself. “There is absolutely no evidence or factual basis for indicating that,” Hironaka said.

He said that his team is trying to access correct information and find out what evidence the prosecution might have.

“I have made an effort to share information with the media, including the foreign media, during this whole pre-trial motion,” he said.

Under the Japanese system, the prosecutors are not required to disclose all the evidence at their disposal. The Japanese law requires that prosecutors must disclose anything related to any evidence related to the specific filings they make.

They must also disclose any evidence that is related to the filings that are made by the defense counsel. However, there is no requirement for them to disclose evidence from other parts.

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Ghosn was arrested at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Nov. 19, 2018, on multiple charges related to his stewardship of the two companies.

The cases involved not only Nissan-Renault and Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors (part of the Franco-Japanese alliance), but also the Japanese and French governments along with various key players from Asia and the Middle East.

Nissan was on the brink of bankruptcy in March 1999, with about 2 trillion yen ($17.6 billion) in interest-bearing debt.

This is when it entered a capital partnership with major French automaker Renault SA. Ghosn has been credited for turning the company around dramatically since then.

However, fears that the high-profile CEO and chairman was planning to merge Nissan into a much larger multinational motor alliance appeared to have fuelled speculations regarding the future of the company.

It was reportedly argued within Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government that the automaker would no longer be recognizably Japanese.

The case has larger ramifications and the two governments have routinely gotten involved in discussions related to its future.

According to news reports, when Macron and Abe met in Buenos Aires, the French president asked that the Franco-Japanese alliance be maintained.

Prosecution’s visit

On being asked by Arab News Japan about reports of a prosecution team visiting Saudi Arabia and Oman, Hironaka confirmed that the visit indeed took place after Ghosn’s arrest.

“However, we have not been given any access to any information that they may or may not have gathered there,” he said, adding that the defense team is considering visiting the region but has no concrete schedule yet.

“Right now, we are focusing on the criminal aspect of the criminal legal case,” said Hironaka.

The defense team also said that they have not seen any factual evidence to indicate that any money was transferred from Oman’s Suhail Bahwan Automobiles (SBA) to Ghosn or any member of his family.

Ghosn has been stripped of all his posts at Nissan and Renault even as Nissan’s sales and profits have plunged – as has the company’s share price – since Ghosn’s dramatic arrest.

The trial is not expected to be held until well into next year.

Physical condition

According to Hironaka, Ghosn is doing his best despite the very severe difficult situation that he is placed under and hasn’t changed much during this past year.

“He is going about his daily life to the extent that he is allowed to visit my office almost every day. At my office, he is allowed a personal computer and he goes through the file records and other information. He has had an outing and went to Kyoto with his daughter,” he said.

ALSO READ: Ghosn denies report of improper use of Nissan money

Hironaka also highlighted the problem of people following Ghosn very persistently on the streets.

“There are cars and motorcycles following him around. We don’t think it’s the media and we are trying to find a way to deal with that. It is a form of psychological harassment,” he said.

Ghosn’s wife

According to Hironaka, Ghosn is not allowed to meet his wife unless he has permission from the court and the court hasn’t been asked for that permission.

“We did make a request to modify the conditions related to meeting with his wife, but that request was refused, and we have had no progress since then,” he said.

“Based on the current status seen thus far, there is nothing to indicate that the prosecutors have any powerful evidence that would indicate that Mr. Ghosn is guilty,” he concluded.

Another member of the team, Hiroshi Kawatsu, said this is an unprecedented case in which illegal arrest has been made and illegal prosecution is taking place.

We see a direct relationship between our request for dismissal and our firm belief that Mr. Ghosn is innocent.