Ex-Nissan boss Ghosn released on bail after 108 days in detention

TOKYO, Mar 6, 2019, Kyodo. Former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn was released on bail Wednesday from the Tokyo Detention House, where he was held for 108 days over financial misconduct allegations, reported the Kyodo.

The Tokyo District Court approved Tuesday his request for bail, the third since his arrest on Nov. 19 and first by his revamped defense team, in exchange for conditions such as the 64-year-old executive remaining in Japan and installing a security camera at the entrance of his residence.

“I am innocent and totally committed to vigorously defending myself in a fair trial against these meritless and unsubstantiated accusations,” Ghosn said in a statement issued Tuesday through his representative in the United States.

During his release on 1 billion yen ($9 million) bail, Ghosn cannot use his mobile phone freely and is only permitted to access a computer in his lawyer’s office on weekdays during the day. He will also be banned from contacting Nissan executives and other people potentially linked to the allegations.

But he will be allowed to attend board meetings at Nissan, where he remains a director, if the court approves it.

It is rare for a Japanese court to grant bail to a defendant who has denied charges before the pre-trial process of narrowing down dispute points has started.

The treatment of Ghosn following his arrest has brought Japan’s criminal justice system under international scrutiny, with practices such as detaining a suspect for a long period and conducting interrogations without a lawyer present likened by critics to holding a “hostage.”

Ghosn’s release came after the bail money was paid Wednesday and the district court rejected an appeal from Tokyo prosecutors seeking to reverse the decision.

The bail request, made Thursday, followed two previous attempts in January that were rejected by the court, apparently out of concern Ghosn could destroy evidence or flee Japan.

Ghosn picked his new team of lawyers in mid-February headed by Junichiro Hironaka, known for securing acquittals in high-profile cases in a country in which the conviction rate stood at around 98 percent in 2018.

Ghosn is accused of understating his remuneration by around 9 billion yen in Nissan’s securities reports over eight years through last March.

He has also been charged with aggravated breach of trust for having transferred 1.85 billion yen in personal losses from derivatives contracts to Nissan in 2008, and having the automaker pay $14.7 million to Khaled al-Juffali, a Saudi businessman who extended credit to him.

The prosecutors are continuing their probe into other overseas transactions involving Ghosn that Nissan officials claim are opaque, investigative sources said earlier.

Ghosn, credited with saving Nissan from the brink of bankruptcy in the late 1990s and building the company’s partnership with Renault SA, was dismissed as the Japanese automaker’s chairman shortly after his arrest.

Nissan said its own internal investigation, triggered by a whistle-blower’s reports, had also uncovered the use of company assets and funds by Ghosn for personal purposes.

Renault, where Ghosn served as chairman and CEO, has also replaced him with new leadership, while Mitsubishi Motors Corp., the third partner in the Japanese-French alliance, has ousted Ghosn as its chairman.

Nissan is set to hold an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting on April 8 to remove Ghosn completely from the board and welcome Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard, who assumed the post in January, as a new member.