4 ms·

Carlos Ghosn Flees Trial in Japan for Lebanese Homeland

36 points by olouv 7y ago

elfexec 7y ago
Homeland? Pretty sure Carlos Ghosn was born in brazil.
- kinow 7y ago
  I remember reading about him in Brazil while I was graduating. He is definitely born in Brazil, but I think he has another citizenship too. Wikipedia says >is a Brazilian-born French businessman of Lebanese ancestry. And >Nationality French–Lebanese–Brazilian
  - gregoriol 7y ago
    The guy doesn't have balls, he has passports
- anonu 7y ago
  Hes of Lebanese descent and pretty much a hero in Lebanon.
- Bayart 7y ago
  Libanese descent, Brazil-born, French-educated.
BrentOzar 7y ago
I wonder if the Japanese authorities didn’t just decide the case against him wasn’t strong enough (or that his lawyers were fighting it too hard) and they might jeopardize their legendary 99% conviction rates, and they decided to look the other way while he “escaped.”
- audiometry 7y ago
  Dunno why being downvoted for this. Makes perfect sense. I'm surprised the guy didn't flee earlier -- his bail money (~$15mn) would be a pittance. Pity his poor lieutenant left behind though. Nasty business.
  - closeparen 7y ago
    Surely they didn’t let him keep his passport; how is he crossing borders?
    - Hydraulix989 7y ago
      Amazing what money can buy
      - anonu 7y ago
        I'm sure a private jet facilitates a getaway
    - internet_user 7y ago
      Almost certainly a newly issued Lebanese passport.
      - CrazyCatDog 7y ago
        You don’t need a valid passport to land in Beirut, at least that’s my lived experience. I have dual citizenship, I was born in XX. Our Lebanese passports had expired, so my mother and I used our XX passports to fly into Beirut several years ago—I purchased a visa upon touching down, but boarder control insisted I return it, they recognized my last name [1]. Leaving two days later without being able to produce evidence of military service (I was 17 at the time) was a nightmare, and the XX government would not help seeing as how this was not their problem (the curse of a dual citizenship), but I got lucky (see [1]). Come to think of it, Lebanon was in such disarray at the time, it would have been nearly impossible to renounce my Lebanese citizenship—even today, I have no idea what the first step would be. [1] I’m no Ghosn, but my grandfather had toyed with the idea of running for federal office in Lebanon at the time.
- elfexec 7y ago
  > they might jeopardize their legendary 99% conviction rates Isn't your implication that japan's court system is corrupt. So what would the strength of the case have to do with it? Wouldn't japan have convicted him regardless of evidence? Or maybe their conviction rate isn't as "legendary" as you think. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conviction_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conviction_rate Canada's is at 97%, we have a 93% rate in the US. There is more nuance and context to silly reddit posts about japan. > and they decided to look the other way while he “escaped.” My guess is that it was negotiations between japanese politicians/nissan execs and french politicians/renault execs. My guess is that there were some concessions in exchange for letting ghosn flee. What they are, we'll never know. And what ghosn really did to get nissan upset, we'll never know.
- soraminazuki 7y ago
  Wouldn't letting him escape be way more embarrassing?
tibbydudeza 7y ago
I can't blame him. The Japanese justice system is messed up ... long detention periods to induce confessions and then not allowed to see your family is just so cruel. So I take their conviction rate of 99% with a rather large bag of salt.
Traster 7y ago
I would love to see a real deep dive on what happened with Ghosn. All I've heard about is snippets of Japan being unhappy that the alliance looked likely to end up with Nissan being a susbidiary of Renault rather than vice versa, then there's all these accusations of corruption - which probably aren't completely unfoundeed, but could easily just be a pretext. It feels like someone could write a full "Bad Blood" style piece about all the twists and turns and it'd be really interesting.
- anthony_doan 7y ago
  > It feels like someone could write a full "Bad Blood" style piece about all the twists and turns and it'd be really interesting. You're not wrong. He was hailed as the savior of Nissan and there were a manga of him about it IIRC. He saved Nissan in the 90s and turned that company around. I've stopped follow car news after 2010s and have stopped fawning over Nissan. But the fall of him is really weird I've no clue what's going on but very crazy 180 turn of event of recent years.
justinclift 7y ago
https://archive.is/2tAtr https://archive.is/2tAtr
zadkey 7y ago
The Japanese conviction rate is the highest in the world, higher than dictatorships that coerce confessions through beatings. No one should reasonably expect a fair trial in Japan.

36 points by olouv 7y ago

elfexec 7y ago

Homeland? Pretty sure Carlos Ghosn was born in brazil.

kinow 7y ago
I remember reading about him in Brazil while I was graduating. He is definitely born in Brazil, but I think he has another citizenship too. Wikipedia says >is a Brazilian-born French businessman of Lebanese ancestry. And >Nationality French–Lebanese–Brazilian
- gregoriol 7y ago
  The guy doesn't have balls, he has passports
anonu 7y ago
Hes of Lebanese descent and pretty much a hero in Lebanon.
Bayart 7y ago
Libanese descent, Brazil-born, French-educated.

BrentOzar 7y ago

I wonder if the Japanese authorities didn’t just decide the case against him wasn’t strong enough (or that his lawyers were fighting it too hard) and they might jeopardize their legendary 99% conviction rates, and they decided to look the other way while he “escaped.”

audiometry 7y ago
Dunno why being downvoted for this. Makes perfect sense. I'm surprised the guy didn't flee earlier -- his bail money (~$15mn) would be a pittance. Pity his poor lieutenant left behind though. Nasty business.
- closeparen 7y ago
  Surely they didn’t let him keep his passport; how is he crossing borders?
  - Hydraulix989 7y ago
    Amazing what money can buy
    - anonu 7y ago
      I'm sure a private jet facilitates a getaway
  - internet_user 7y ago
    Almost certainly a newly issued Lebanese passport.
    - CrazyCatDog 7y ago
      You don’t need a valid passport to land in Beirut, at least that’s my lived experience. I have dual citizenship, I was born in XX. Our Lebanese passports had expired, so my mother and I used our XX passports to fly into Beirut several years ago—I purchased a visa upon touching down, but boarder control insisted I return it, they recognized my last name [1]. Leaving two days later without being able to produce evidence of military service (I was 17 at the time) was a nightmare, and the XX government would not help seeing as how this was not their problem (the curse of a dual citizenship), but I got lucky (see [1]). Come to think of it, Lebanon was in such disarray at the time, it would have been nearly impossible to renounce my Lebanese citizenship—even today, I have no idea what the first step would be. [1] I’m no Ghosn, but my grandfather had toyed with the idea of running for federal office in Lebanon at the time.
elfexec 7y ago
> they might jeopardize their legendary 99% conviction rates Isn't your implication that japan's court system is corrupt. So what would the strength of the case have to do with it? Wouldn't japan have convicted him regardless of evidence? Or maybe their conviction rate isn't as "legendary" as you think. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conviction_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conviction_rate Canada's is at 97%, we have a 93% rate in the US. There is more nuance and context to silly reddit posts about japan. > and they decided to look the other way while he “escaped.” My guess is that it was negotiations between japanese politicians/nissan execs and french politicians/renault execs. My guess is that there were some concessions in exchange for letting ghosn flee. What they are, we'll never know. And what ghosn really did to get nissan upset, we'll never know.
soraminazuki 7y ago
Wouldn't letting him escape be way more embarrassing?

tibbydudeza 7y ago

I can't blame him. The Japanese justice system is messed up ... long detention periods to induce confessions and then not allowed to see your family is just so cruel. So I take their conviction rate of 99% with a rather large bag of salt.

Traster 7y ago

I would love to see a real deep dive on what happened with Ghosn. All I've heard about is snippets of Japan being unhappy that the alliance looked likely to end up with Nissan being a susbidiary of Renault rather than vice versa, then there's all these accusations of corruption - which probably aren't completely unfoundeed, but could easily just be a pretext. It feels like someone could write a full "Bad Blood" style piece about all the twists and turns and it'd be really interesting.

anthony_doan 7y ago
> It feels like someone could write a full "Bad Blood" style piece about all the twists and turns and it'd be really interesting. You're not wrong. He was hailed as the savior of Nissan and there were a manga of him about it IIRC. He saved Nissan in the 90s and turned that company around. I've stopped follow car news after 2010s and have stopped fawning over Nissan. But the fall of him is really weird I've no clue what's going on but very crazy 180 turn of event of recent years.

justinclift 7y ago

https://archive.is/2tAtr https://archive.is/2tAtr

zadkey 7y ago

The Japanese conviction rate is the highest in the world, higher than dictatorships that coerce confessions through beatings. No one should reasonably expect a fair trial in Japan.