The trial of Michael Taylor and his son Peter, alleged accomplices in the exfiltration of Carlos Ghosn from Japan at the end of 2019, is due to open Monday, June 14 in Tokyo, promising to deliver details on one of the
"most cheeky"
leaks
of recent history.
Michael Taylor, 60, a former member of the American special forces converted to private security, and his son Peter Taylor, 28, were arrested in May 2020 near Boston (northeastern United States) by the American authorities, under arrest warrants issued by Japan.
After exhausting all possible remedies, they were extradited last March to Japan for trial.
They face up to three years in prison.
Read also: First meeting between Carlos Ghosn and French justice
On the morning of December 31, 2019, Japan learned of the flight to Lebanon of its most famous defendant: Carlos Ghosn, the deposed big boss of Nissan, Renault and their automotive alliance, until then on bail pending his death. trial for alleged financial embezzlement, with the ban on leaving the country. Two days earlier, the Franco-Lebanese-Brazilian had quietly left his home in Tokyo to reach Osaka (west) by taking the Shinkansen - the Japanese high-speed train - wearing a hat, mask and glasses to avoid being recognized.
The two men who accompanied him, and who flew in the evening from Osaka airport aboard a private jet, were identified from surveillance images: Michael Taylor and George Antoine Zayek, a man of Lebanese origin who remains untraceable.
Impersonating musicians, they were able to load their luggage without going through security checks, as was then allowed in Japan for private jets.
Investigators believe that Carlos Ghosn was hidden in a large box of audio equipment, pierced with small holes to allow him to breathe.
"One of the most cheeky leaks"
The three men then flew to Istanbul. From there, Carlos Ghosn took another flight to Lebanon, which he has not left since. Peter Taylor, present in Tokyo just before the flight and who had met Carlos Ghosn several times in Japan in the previous months, left the country alone on a plane to China. A document from US prosecutors spoke of
"one of the most brazen and best-orchestrated leaks in recent history
.
"
Carlos Ghosn is also the subject of an arrest warrant from Japan with a request for arrest by Interpol, but remains out of reach in Lebanon, which does not extradite its nationals. The one who declared that he had
"not fled justice"
but
"escaped injustice"
in Japan, remained very discreet about the conditions of his exfiltration to
"protect those who took the risk"
to help him. However, he assures that he did not involve members of his family. In February, three Turkish nationals were sentenced by an Istanbul court to more than four years in prison in the case of the flight of Carlos Ghosn: a senior official of the Turkish private jet charter company MNG Jet and two pilots .Four other people were acquitted.
Read also: How Nissan organized the fall of Carlos Ghosn
In addition, the escape of Carlos Ghosn did not prevent the opening last year of a criminal trial in Tokyo over deferred compensation totaling several tens of millions of dollars that the big boss of Nissan was supposed to touch to his. retirement, but without this being mentioned in the group's stock market reports.
A former Nissan legal official, the American Greg Kelly, arrested on the same day as Carlos Ghosn in November 2018, finds himself alone on the dock, Nissan being tried as a legal person.
Greg Kelly, who faces up to ten years in prison, denies having acted illegally in this trial with often very technical debates and whose last hearing is scheduled for early July, while Nissan has pleaded guilty. While being engaged in several civil litigation against Nissan, Carlos Ghosn, who claims his innocence across the board, is also concerned by various investigations in France. French investigating judges recently interviewed him for several days in Beirut. But Carlos Ghosn cannot be indicted outside French territory.
