Ghosn’s Defense Team Calls for Ending Detention

January 9, 2019

Tokyo--Former Nissan Motor Co. <7201> Chairman Carlos Ghosn's defense team on Tuesday requested Tokyo District Court to end his detention.

In a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo, Ghosn's chief lawyer Motonari Otsuru asserted the innocence of his 64-year-old client, who faces the charges of aggravated breach of trust for having shifted private losses to Nissan.

Otsuru also said that he has contacted through third-party mediation a Saudi businessman to whom Ghosn allegedly had Nissan pay 14.7 million dollars for his cooperation in the transfer of the losses.

The lawyer quoted the businessman as saying that he had solicited investment for the sake of Nissan, and that the money was fair compensation for his services.

"I guess prosecutors have not talked (with the businessman). It's extremely unusual to arrest (Ghosn) without hearing his side of the story," Otsuru said.

Otsuru said Ghosn reportedly transferred the losses to Nissan in October 2008. In Japan, the statute of limitations for aggravated breach of trust expires seven years after the crime is committed.

"The statute of limitations for all of the Japanese people related to the alleged transfer has already expired," he said. "It's utter nonsense that only Ghosn has been arrested because the time he was abroad is not counted in."

Tuesday's press conference drew some 230 Japanese and foreign media people.

Asked by an overseas reporter whether an internal conflict at Nissan was behind the arrest of Ghosn, Otsuru said, "I'm not in a position to comment on that." Jiji Press