TOKYO, December 31. /TASS/. Former CEO of the French-Japanese automobile alliance Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Carlos Ghosn, who was under a house arrest facing a court trial in Tokyo next spring, is likely to have left Japan without a required permission, Kyodo news agency reported on Tuesday.
French newspaper Les Echos announced on Monday that Ghosn, 65, who holds French, Lebanese and Brazilian citizenship, landed in the Lebanese capital of Beirut on board of a private jet flying from Turkey.
"It seems that he did it without a permission," Kyodo cited a source in the law enforcement bodies as saying. "We have no information that the house arrest conditions have been changed for Ghosn."
One of Ghosn’s lawyers said in an interview with Japan’s broadcaster NHK that he knew nothing about his client’s possible escape from the country.
Carlos Ghosn and former Nissan executive director Greg Kelly were arrested on November 19, 2018 on suspicion of violating Japan's financial law. Investigators claim that he failed to declare properly his reward of nine billion yen (over $80 million), when he was the chair of Nissan Directors Board between 2010 and 2018. Ghosn was also pressed with a number of other charges.
In March, Ghosn was released from the Tokyo District Prison on a bail of one billion yen (around $9 mln), but was taken into custody again on April 4 after additional charges were filed.
In late April, a court in Tokyo ruled to release him on bail of 500 million yen (approximately $4.5 million). Under the terms of the bail, Ghosn had no right of leaving his apartments in Tokyo and meeting with his wife without a permission.