Tokyo court jails U.S. father-son duo for helping Ghosn escape

TOKYO: An American father and son who helped former Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn flee Japan were sentenced to 20 months and two years in prison by a Tokyo court yesterday.

The sentences were the first to be handed down in Japan over the Nissan saga, which began with former auto tycoon Ghosn’s shock arrest in 2018 on financial misconduct allegations.

Former US special forces operative Michael Taylor was jailed for two years, while his son, Peter, received a sentence of 20 months.

“This case enabled Ghosn, a defendant of a serious crime, to escape overseas.

“Both defendants pulled off an unprecedented escape,” chief judge Hideo Nirei said, noting that there was no prospect of Ghosn — an international fugitive in Lebanon — returning to Japan.

The Taylors, who faced up to three years in prison, did not contest their role in what US prosecutors described as “one of the most brazen and well-orchestrated escape acts in recent history.”

The pair both apologised in previous hearings at which Japanese prosecutors had sought a sentence of two years, 10 months for Michael, and two years, six months for Peter.

Their defence lawyers argued that a suspended sentence was appropriate given their remorse, and asked that the 10 months they were in US detention before being extradited be considered in sentencing.

The Taylors arrived in Tokyo in March after losing a battle against extradition.

At their first hearing in June, prosecutors described the almost-cinematic details of the operation — including smuggling Ghosn in a large case with air holes drilled into it to slip past security at an airport.

Describing the experience recently to the BBC, Ghosn said the half-hour in the box waiting for the plane to take off as “probably the longest wait I’ve ever experienced in my life”.

A third man, identified as George Antoine Zayek, was also accused of involvement in the escape but remains at large.