Ghosn has tales to tell and scores to settle

London

CARLOS Ghosn has spent more than a year trapped in a Japanese legal odyssey that's transfixed the automotive world and thrown his life into chaos. Now, having pulled off a daring escape from Japan to Lebanon, he's an international fugitive.

But the executive, who faces multiple charges of financial misconduct that he denies, is also free to speak his mind fully, without legal filtering, for the first time since his surprise arrest on the tarmac at Haneda airport back in November 2018.

This much is likely: The former head of Nissan Motor Co and Renault has stories to tell and scores to settle.

At stake is his entire legacy. Will he be remembered as the brilliant, cost-cutting manager who rescued Nissan and built one of mightiest auto alliances in the industry? Or will he be just another name in a hall of infamy of white-collar fugitives?

Mr Ghosn said in his statement from Lebanon on Tuesday that he would "finally communicate freely with the media, and look forward to starting next week."

Reuters reported that a private security firm oversaw the escape and Mr Ghosn met Lebanese President Michel Aoun after arriving in Beirut. Mr Aoun's office has denied the encounter took place. Either way, get ready for what's likely to be a blistering public relations assault that will rattle cages in Japan and France. Mr Ghosn is planning a press conference on Wednesday in Beirut, the Yomiuri newspaper reported.

He said in the first e-mailed statement after his remarkable exit from Japan: "I have not fled justice. I have escaped injustice and political persecution." An even more robust indictment of the nation's legal system is likely in the weeks ahead.

His arrest revived long-standing concerns about the fairness of Japan's judicial system, where prosecutors can grill suspects without their lawyers present and enjoy an almost 100 per cent conviction rate. Under the terms of the bail, the courts restricted travel and contact with his family.

In his Dec 31 statement, Mr Ghosn called the Japanese justice system rigged and said his "basic human rights" had been denied, including the presumption of innocence. Those are issues that he almost certainly would have put on the world stage had his case come to trial.

For months, his attorneys have argued that all the charges against their client were bogus, the result of a broad conspiracy among nationalistic Nissan officials, Japanese prosecutors and the government itself.

The goal, according to Mr Ghosn, was to smear him in order to prevent the executive from further integrating Nissan and France's Renault, a plan that threatened the Japanese carmaker's autonomy and was vehemently opposed in the highest echelons of Tokyo officialdom.

In April, Mr Ghosn was detained before a scheduled tell-all press conference, prompting his camp to release a pre-recorded video for such an eventuality. In it, he spoke of several Nissan executives whom he claimed turned on him to advance their own interests. The original video named the people; that segment was edited out in the version released to the public. "I'm talking here about a few executives who, obviously for their own interests and for their own selfish fears, are creating a lot of value destruction. Names? You know them," he said in the video. Now he may disclose the names. In the video, he also criticised Nissan's management for losing sight of the need to move the alliance with Renault forward.

Nissan's earnings have fallen to the lowest level in a decade and the stock was the worst performer on the Bloomberg World Auto Manufacturers Index last year; Renault was second-worst.

It remains to be seen which talking points Mr Ghosn will hit the hardest. Yet this much is clear: He is a fighter, and he has everything to lose if he can't win the PR war. That suggests his approach won't be subtle.

Meanwhile, local media in Japan reported on Thursday that he, in his flight to Lebanon to avoid a Japanese trial, was carrying one of his two French passports. This comes as Japan launched a probe into the embarrassing security lapse.

His lead lawyer Junichiro Hironaka has said lawyers hold three passports belonging to the international tycoon, who holds French, Brazilian and Lebanese nationalities. But public broadcaster NHK said the court had allowed him to keep a second French passport so long as it were "in a locked case" with the key held by his lawyers.

There is no emigration data showing his departure from Japan, but he entered Lebanon on a French passport, NHK said. BLOOMBERG, AFP