Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn is escorted as he walks out of the Tokyo Detention House following his release on bail in Tokyo on April 25, 2019.
BEHROUZ MEHRI/Getty Images
The year is ending with a big mystery. How on earth did Carlos Ghosn, the former Nissan chairman who was under house arrest in Japan, manage to flee to Lebanon? No one really knows for sure. And there is one factor that makes the mystery even more mysterious: Ghosn’s lawyer insists he still has all of his client’s three—French, Lebanese, and Brazilian—passports. So, how did Ghosn manage it? By hiding inside the case of a musical instrument. At least that is according to one report by Lebanese TV news network MTV.
According to that version of events, a band arrived at his home in Tokyo, where he was awaiting trial. The 65-year-old then reportedly slipped inside an empty musical instrument case and was taken to a small local airport where he had a better chance of not being recognized. There, he slipped into a private plane that flew him to Istanbul, where he changed plans and went on yet another private plane to Lebanon, where he arrived Monday.
France’s Le Monde said the escape was planned by Ghosn’s wife Carole and that it involved using an ID card to get into Beirut. Others, however, insist Ghosn had a fake passport, with some identifying that fake document as a French passport. Amid speculation that the powerful former executive may have been able to skirt immigration in Lebanon, officials in Beirut insisted they had no idea how Ghosn left Japan but assured that he entered the country legally. “There are no plans to take any measures against him or subject him to legal action,” according to a statement from the country’s General Security, the force tasked with managing the country’s border. Lebanon does not have an extradition treaty with Japan. Internet sleuths quickly got to working and found private jet flight information on aircraft that could support the contention that Ghosn arrived in Lebanon via Turkey.
For now, his lawyer says he’s as much in the dark as anybody else. Junichiro Hironaka said he was “surprised and baffled” when he heard the news on television. “It would have been difficult for him to do this without the assistance of some large organization,” Hironaka said. “I want to ask him, ‘How could he do this to us?’”
Ghosn has insisted he is innocent but said he could not face a fair trial in Japan on charges of financial misconduct. “I have not fled justice,” Ghosn said in an emailed statement Tuesday. “I have escaped injustice and political persecution.”
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