Former Car Tycoon Carlos Ghosn Says Put Me On Trial Now

By Sarah Sfeir

Former car executive Carlos Ghosn wants to be tried in Lebanon as quickly as possible so that the charges against him can be settled “once and for all,” he told Arab News on Friday.

Ghosn spoke after an investigating judge in the Paris suburb of Nanterre issued a new international arrest warrant for him over payments of about $16.3 million between the Renault-Nissan alliance that Ghosn once headed and its dealer in Oman, Suhail Bahwan Automobiles.

The allegations against Ghosn, 68, include misuse of company assets, money laundering and corruption. Ghosn told Arab News the French judge’s accusations were based on documents taken unlawfully by Nissan employees from his home in Lebanon, and sent to France by Japanese prosecutors.

“The arrest warrant is the beginning of the real judicial process, which consists of going to trial,” he said. “I want to go to trial, because this is the only way I can finish this ordeal.”

Ghosn said the documents should now be transferred to Lebanon, so that the trial could take place there.

“I think if really the motivation is that justice be rendered, there is a very clean way to do it once and for all — am I guilty or am I innocent? — and let’s finish the story that has, frankly, lasted too long.”

Ghosn was first detained in Japan in November 2018 on suspicion of financial misconduct.

In December 2019, as he awaited trial, Ghosn was smuggled out of Japan on a private jet, hidden in an audio equipment case, and flown to Beirut. He justified his escape by saying he did not believe he would get a fair trial in Tokyo.