{"id":31268,"date":"2019-01-31T12:25:28","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T12:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=31268"},"modified":"2019-01-31T12:25:28","modified_gmt":"2019-01-31T12:25:28","slug":"carlos-ghosn-arrest-is-a-plot-to-destroy-my-reputation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=31268","title":{"rendered":"Carlos Ghosn: Arrest is a plot to destroy my reputation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Former Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn has slammed his ongoing detention<\/a>, telling the AFP news agency and a French newspaper the decision to refuse him bail<\/a> “would not be normal in any other democracy”.<\/p>\n

“Why am I being punished before being found guilty,” Ghosn asked, speaking to AFP and the Les Echos daily on Thursday\u00a0<\/span>in his first interview with foreign media since his\u00a0arrest<\/a> on November 19.<\/p>\n

Ghosn, who is being held at a Tokyo<\/a> detention centre on three charges of financial misconduct, said his arrest was “a story of betrayal”.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

“There is no question about this,” he said, speaking firmly and clearly in English, dressed in a black tracksuit and plastic sandals.<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I have in front of me an army at Nissan, more than hundreds of people are dedicated to the case, 70 people at the prosecutor’s office, and I am being left in prison for more than 70 days,” he added.<\/span><\/p>\n

“No phone, no computer… how can I defend myself?”<\/span><\/p>\n

The 64-year-old Franco-Brazilian-Lebanese tycoon said he was the victim of a “plot” caused by opposition to his plans to fully integrate the alliance he led of Nissan, Mitsubishi Motors and France’s Renault.<\/span><\/p>\n

And he said Nissan was trying to “destroy my reputation”.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I have an army of people throwing trash at me every day,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

“There are not only allegations of the prosecutors, but also those of Nissan. They take a lot of facts out of their context. It is a distortion of reality to destroy my reputation.”<\/span><\/p>\n

No sense of time<\/strong><\/h2>\n

<\/strong>Once feted in Japan<\/a> for his role in turning around Nissan, Ghosn has gone from flying around the world in a private jet to a cell in Tokyo’s Kosuge detention centre.<\/p>\n

He spoke without emotion, but said it was “very hard” to be unable to call his family.<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Since November 19, I could not even call my wife Carole, my children,” he said.<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

He said the lights were on even at night, and with no watch or clock, he had “no sense of time”.<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I have only 30 minutes to go outside on the roof. I’m craving for fresh air. Yes, I am strong, but obviously, I am tired.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Ghosn, speaking from behind a window and flanked by two guards, did not appear noticeably gaunt and walked confidently into the room.<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

Japanese authorities did not permit any cameras or recording equipment to be used during the interview.<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ghosn has only been seen in public once since his arrest, during a January 8 court appearance<\/a> where he denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

He faces three charges of financial misconduct, including claims he under-reported his salary, tried to shift personal losses onto Nissan’s books and used company funds to compensate a friend.<\/span><\/p>\n

He denies any wrongdoing and repeated on Thursday that “there is not one yen that I have received that was not reported”.<\/span><\/p>\n

The court has judged Ghosn a flight risk who could tamper with evidence if freed, and his own lawyer has acknowledged the tycoon is unlikely to win bail before a trial, which could take at least six months.<\/span><\/p>\n

He has pledged to stay in Japan, wear a tracking device and even hire guards of the court’s choosing, but to no avail.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I have done everything I can to show I can’t flee, to reassure them I would not destroy any evidence,” he said on Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ghosn’s arrest has laid bare tensions in the alliance he forged and led among Nissan, Mitsubishi Motors and French automaker Renault.<\/span><\/p>\n

While the Japanese firms moved quickly to remove Ghosn from leadership positions, Renault was more cautious about the allegations against him, and he resigned before a board meeting to discuss removing him there.<\/span><\/p>\n

Renault currently owns 43 percent of Nissan, which itself has a 15 percent stake in the French company.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Nissan overtook its French partner compared with when the alliance was created and Ghosn said he believed his attempts to further integrate the alliance prompted a backlash among the Japanese firm’s executives that resulted in his arrest.<\/span><\/p>\n

“There was a resistance from the beginning,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

During his sole court appearance, Ghosn spoke fondly of Nissan, and he said that affection endured despite his situation.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I love Japan, I love Nissan. I have dedicated so many years to revive the company, to rebuild it again,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I have nothing against the company.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn has slammed his ongoing detention, telling the AFP news agency and a French newspaper the decision to refuse him bail “would not be normal in any other democracy”. “Why am I being punished before being found guilty,” Ghosn asked, speaking to AFP and the Les Echos daily on Thursday\u00a0in his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}