(Communiqué distribué uniquement aux Etats-Unis et en anglais – pour référence)

One Year After His Arrest, Carlos Ghosn’s Defense Counsel Addresses His Prolonged Unjust Treatment

November 19, 2019 – One year after Carlos Ghosn’s shocking arrest in Japan, he remains a victim of Japan’s hostage system of justice, prohibited from communicating with his wife and without a trial date to contest the baseless charges that have been brought against him.

Over the past 12 months, among other misconduct and human rights violations, the Tokyo prosecutors have:

  • Detained Mr. Ghosn in solitary confinement for 129 days following his shocking arrest at Haneda Airport;
  • After finally releasing Mr. Ghosn on bail, rearrested him in a 6 a.m. raid, hours after he announced he would be holding a press conference, and then again detained him in solitary confinement;
  • Imposed punitive, inhumane and unjustified bail conditions that prohibit him from seeing or speaking with his wife and curtail his ability to mount an effective defense to the charges brought against him;
  • Engineered a year-long campaign to leak false information to the media to damage Mr. Ghosn’s reputation and impair his ability to receive a fair trial; and
  • Tampered with and concealed evidence from Mr. Ghosn’s lawyers.

Speaking on the one-year anniversary of his arrest, Mr. Ghosn’s counsel said: 

“It has been one full year since our client was ambushed and arrested without warning at Haneda Airport.

Since then, in their zeal to convict Carlos Ghosn of crimes of which he is innocent, the Tokyo prosecutors have repeatedly and systematically denied Mr. Ghosn fundamental rights of due process and turned the presumption of innocence on its head. The prosecutors detained him in solitary confinement for more than four months; interrogated him relentlessly for hours each day without the presence of legal counsel; ignored the testimony of key exculpatory witnesses; relied on a flawed and biased Nissan investigation utterly lacking independence or integrity; repeatedly denied Mr. Ghosn the right to see or even speak to his wife; leaked false and malicious lies to the media in an attempt to destroy Mr. Ghosn’s reputation, intimidate his family, and deny his basic right to a fair trial; and tampered with and concealed relevant evidence.

The prosecutors’ unlawful actions, aided and abetted by others, including METI and Nissan, have also irreparably damaged Nissan – one of Japan’s iconic companies to which our client dedicated himself for two decades- and in doing so destroyed billions of dollars of shareholder value.

We can assure you that none of this has weakened Mr. Ghosn’s resolve. He is determined to fight these meritless allegations vigorously. He is looking forward to the opportunity to set the record straight and reunite with his family.”

Mr. Ghosn’s Global Defense Team

Messrs. Brad Karp and Michael Gertzman – Paul, Weiss

Messrs. Junichiro Hironaka, Takashi Takano, Hiroshi Kawatsu and Ms. Megumi Wada – Japanese Criminal Defense Counsel

Mr. Carlos Abou Jaoude – Abou Jaoude & Associates

Mr. Francois Zimeray – Zimeray & Finelle

Mr. Jean Yves Le Borgne – Le Borgne & Saint Palais

Messrs. Roeland de Mol and Laurens de Graaf – Barentskrans

Mr. Andre Chidiac and Ms. Amal Haddad