Ghosn released on bail
TOKYO: Ousted Nissan Motor chairman Carlos Ghosn was released from jail yesterday after posting US$9 million (RM36.84 million) in bail, giving the executive fresh impetus to craft his defence against financial misconduct charges in Japan.
He was wearing a workman’s uniform, face mask, blue cap and glasses when he slipped out of the Detention House, here, and got into a minicar unrecognised by many of the journalists and TV crews camped outside the facility, television footage showed.
The former titan of the global car industry had been confined to a small, unheated room in the detention centre for more than 100 days since he was arrested on November 19 on charges Ghosn had described as “merit-less”.
The District Court, here, said Ghosn paid the one billion yen (RM36.58 million) bail, among the highest in Japan, after it rejected a last-ditch appeal by prosecutors to keep him in jail.
Ghosn, also the former chairman of Renault and Mitsubishi Motors, was granted bail after he gave assurances that he would remain in Japan, surrender his passport to his lawyer and submit to extensive surveillance.
He has agreed to set up cameras at the entrances and exits to his residence, and is prohibited from using the Internet or sending and receiving text messages.
Ghosn is also banned from communicating with parties involved in his case, and permitted computer access only at his lawyer’s office.
He faces charges of aggravated breach of trust and under-reporting his compensation by about US$82 million at Nissan for nearly a decade. If convicted on all charges, he faces a maximum sentence of up to 15 years in jail, prosecutors have said.
“I am innocent and totally committed to vigorously defending myself in a fair trial against these merit-less and unsubstantiated accusations,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.
The release will allow Ghosn — the architect of Nissan’s carmaking partnership with Renault and Mitsubishi — to meet his new legal team frequently and build a defence ahead of trial.
Last month, Ghosn hired lawyer Junichiro Hironaka, nicknamed “the Razor” for his success at winning acquittals in several high-profile cases, to replace Motonari Otsuru, who once ran the prosecutor’s office investigating him.