Ghosn lines up ‘The Breaker’ to fight his corner

TOKYO: Motonari Ohtsuru, widely reported to be Carlos Ghosn’s Japanese defense attorney, should be familiar with the tactics of the prosecution-he used to run the elite unit investigating the tycoon. As a prosecutor, the bespectacled 63-year-old with floppy greying hair earned the soubriquet “the breaker” as he was so good at extracting confessions from suspects.

Considered a straight-shooter, he also became affectionately known as “Mr Square” as he was so straight-laced even in a profession known for its seriousness. Being a prosecutor was always Ohtsuru’s dream job and he rose up the ranks to become chief of a special squad in the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, which probes the biggest financial cases-including Ghosn’s. After his appointment in 2005, he vowed to work to bring white-collar criminals to heel, spurred on by the sense of injustice felt by the working class.

At his inaugural news conference, Ohtsuru told reporters he wanted to “prosecute cases that anger honest workers and make them wonder ‘How come this is allowed?’.”

Ohtsuru, in a past article on the justice ministry website explaining his job, pledged to devote his team to defending people who play by the rules. “We must not accept a society in which unfair behavior triumphs and outdoes people who earn a living by the sweat of their brow or who lost their jobs in corporate restructuring, and companies that follow the law,” Ohtsuru wrote. —AFP