Ghosn says he’s victim of backstabbing
TOKYO: Carlos Ghosn has accused “backstabbing” Nissan executives of a “conspiracy” to have him arrested over fears he planned to merge the firm with France’s Renault, in a video released yesterday.
The video, recorded shortly before Ghosn was rearrested by prosecutors, here, last week, did not, however, point finger at specific individuals, with the tycoon’s lawyer saying it had been edited to remove names.
The video was the latest twist in a rollercoaster case that has defied expectations since the shock arrest of the 65-year-old last November.
In the brief recording, played by his lawyers at a press conference, Ghosn appeared at a desk in a white shirt and black suit jacket and repeated that he was “innocent of all the charges that have been brought against me”.
He denounced a “conspiracy” against him and said events had been “twisted in a way to paint a personage of greed, a personage of dictatorship”.
“This is about a plot, this is about conspiracy, this is about backstabbing,” he said.
He said the “conspiracy” was motivated by “a fear that the next step of the alliance in terms of convergence and in terms of moving towards a merger would in a certain way threaten some people or eventually threaten the autonomy of Nissan”.
In addition to heading Nissan, Ghosn oversaw the alliance that groups the carmaker with Renault and Mitsubishi Motors.
He has previously suggested that concerns at Nissan on closer integration led to his arrest.
But while Ghosn’s wife Carole had said the auto tycoon would name “the people responsible” in the video, his lead lawyer Junichiro Hironaka told journalists that the defence team had opted to edit specific allegations out of the recording.
Ghosn was rearrested by prosecutors last week while out on bail after they announced they were investigating new allegations against him.
A court has extended his detention until Sunday, when prosecutors can apply to hold him for an additional 10 days before they must release him unless they bring charges or file new allegations.
Prosecutors said Ghosn had been detained over transfers of Nissan funds totalling US$15 million (RM61.5 million) between late 2015 and the middle of last year to a dealership in Oman.