TOKYO: Japanese prosecutors are considering the possibility of seeking arrest warrants for people believed to have supported former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn's escape from Japan to Lebanon, informed sources told Jiji Press on Thursday.

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office believes that acts that may have been done to help Ghosn's exit from Japan amount to violation of the immigration control law, according to the sources.

The office is apparently aiming to put his suspected collaborators on an international wanted list through Interpol.

Ghosn, who has been indicted by the prosecutors office for financial misconduct, fled Japan to Lebanon late last year while on bail awaiting trial. As a condition for his bail, Ghosn had been banned from leaving Japan.

The prosecutors office found two men being with Ghosn on Dec. 29, last year, when the former Nissan chief left Japan. The office is accelerating its investigations into the two men, eyeing the possibility of seeking arrest warrants for them, the sources said.

According to security camera footage and other information, Ghosn left his residence in Tokyo's Minato Ward alone around 2:30 p.m. on Dec. 29 (5:30 a.m. GMT) and met with the two men at a nearby hotel.

The three then traveled to Shin-Osaka Station in the western Japan city of Osaka from Shinagawa Station in Tokyo aboard a Tokaido Shinkansen bullet train and entered a hotel near Kansai International Airport in the city around 8 p.m. on that day.

Although security camera footage showed the two men in question leaving the hotel with two large boxes, Ghosn was not seen in the video.

The prosecutors office suspects that the two men hid Ghosn in one of the boxes and loaded them onto a private jet, which flew from the airport and arrived in Lebanon via Istanbul in Turkey.

According to departure records, the two men are believed to be U.S. nationals.

The prosecutors also suspect that there were more collaborators, who made advance preparations for Ghosn's exit from Japan, the sources said.

Jiji Press