Beirut: Lebanon’s justice minister said Thursday that the country has received an international ‘wanted’ notice from Interpol for Nissan’s ex-chairman Carlos Ghosn, four days after he fled Japan before a trial on financial misconduct charges.
Albert Serhan told this agency in an interview that the ‘Red Notice’ for the former automotive titan was received earlier Thursday by the prosecution.
Ghosn skipped bail before his much-anticipated trial, which was to start in April. He arrived in Lebanon, his country of origin, Monday via Turkey and hasn’t been seen in public since. Authorities have said that he entered legally on a French passport.
Interpol’s ‘Red Notices’ are requests to law enforcement agencies worldwide that they locate and provisionally arrest a wanted fugitive.
Serhan, the minister, said the Lebanese prosecution ‘will carry out its duties’, suggesting for the first time that Ghosn may be brought in for questioning.
But he said that Lebanon and Japan do not have an extradition treaty, ruling out the possibility that Beirut would hand Ghosn over to Japan.
It should be stated here that Japanese prosecutors Thursday raided Ghosn’s Tokyo home. Japanese media showed investigators entering the home, which was Ghosn’s third residence in Tokyo since he was first arrested a year ago. Authorities have now searched each one.
It was unclear how Ghosn avoided the tight surveillance he was under in Japan and showed up in Lebanon.
AP