Former Nissan CEO flees Japan to escape 'persecution'

Update - 3/1/2020, 9:35am: The stakes have been raised in one of the automotive industry's most outrageous stories as fugitive Carlos Ghosn is now wanted by Interpol, the international police agency.

According to Reuters, Interpol has issued an arrest warrant for former Nissan and Renault CEO Ghosn and has requested that Lebanon adhere to the edict.

In what sounds more like a movie script than real life, former Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn has fled Tokyo ahead of his April 2020 criminal trial for financial misconduct – reportedly hiding in a large musical instrument case before being spirited out of the country.

The international fugitive now is holed up in Beirut, the capital city of Lebanon.

Reports from the BBC via MTV, a Lebanese TV station, claim that a paramilitary team disguised as members of a band sanctioned to perform at Ghosn's home in Tokyo smuggled him onto a private jet inside the case of a large musical instrument.

The jet later flew to Lebanon – which has no extradition treaty with Japan – via Turkey.

Shortly after his escape, Ghosn released a statement slamming Japan's justice system.

"I am now in Lebanon and will no longer be held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system where guilt is presumed, discrimination is rampant, and basic human rights are denied, in flagrant disregard of Japan's legal obligations under international law and treaties it is bound to uphold," said Ghosn.

"I have not fled justice – I have escaped injustice and political persecution."

The story of Ghosn being spirited out of Japan inside the musical instrument case went viral, but Ghosn's wife, Carole, told Reuters the story was "fiction" – without saying how the escape was made.

Japanese authorities have had 24-hour surveillance covering the former auto exec, who was essentially under house arrest.

If convicted of all charges, Ghosn could languish in a Japanese prison for up to 15 years. Following a pre-trial hearing on Christmas Day, Ghosn's trial was slated for April 2020 -- but that's now looking exceedingly unlikely.

It is also very embarrassing for Japanese authorities that Ghosn got away.

There are question marks over how Ghosn entered Lebanon, given that Japanese authorities had confiscated his Brazilian, French and Lebanese travel documentation.

Japanese politicians have asked if Lebanon was involved in the escape plot. Lebanese minister Salim Jreissati told the New York Times: "The government has nothing to with [Ghosn's] decision to come."

"We don't know the circumstances of his arrival," said the minister.

Ghosn has since confirmed he will hold a news conference on January 8 in Beirut.

It's likely Japan will exert diplomatic pressure on Lebanon to return Ghosn to Tokyo.