Lebanon’s discriminatory prosecutor’s office has interrogated former car magnate Carlos Ghosn on the basis of an Interpol red notice with a view to arresting him without taking any new action against him, a judiciary official told AFP on Monday.
The official, who asked not to be named, said “the discriminatory Attorney General, Judge Imad Kabalan, questioned Ghosn in the presence of his legal representative in the context of a red notice.” Ten days ago, Lebanon received an Interpol red notice against Ghosn, the former head of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, based on an international warrant for his arrest issued by the French authorities more than a month ago. During his interrogation, questions focused, according to a court source, on the allegations attributed by the French judiciary to Ghosn, including “money laundering and using his influence when he was at the head of a giant company, squandering its money and entering into contracts.” which caused damage to the aforementioned company.”
Interpol cannot issue arrest warrants or initiate investigations or prosecutions, but international courts or member states can request a “red notice” while Lebanese laws do not allow citizens to be extradited to a foreign country for trial. Interpol issued its red notice after a court in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre issued an international arrest warrant in April for more than $16.3 million in suspicious payments between the Renault-Nissan alliance and the Omani company, prosecutors say, charges Ghosn denies.
After the interrogation, the Lebanese judiciary, according to the official, informed the French authorities about the content of the meeting and demanded “to provide him with the collection case for review and study.” The official clarified that Lebanon “will not extradite Ghosn to France as a Lebanese citizen and he will appear before the Lebanese judiciary after receiving an extradition request and ascertaining whether the alleged crimes warrant prosecution and trial.”
Based on the French investigation, the prosecutor’s office issued a new decision prohibiting Ghosn from traveling. The Lebanese judiciary decided to ban Ghosn from traveling in early 2020, weeks after his arrival in Beirut, due to the ongoing Japanese investigation against him. The businessman, who is a French, Lebanese and Brazilian citizen, has been in Lebanon since December 2019 after his controversial escape from Japan, where he was awaiting trial following his arrest in 2018. Ghosn said he fled because he didn’t believe he could get a fair trial in Tokyo. He also accused Nissan of conspiring with prosecutors to arrest him as he sought to strengthen the alliance between the Japanese company and Renault. In 2020, Interpol issued an arrest warrant for Ghosn and informed Beirut that he was a fugitive from Japan and wanted by Tokyo authorities for trial. The Lebanese authorities, who do not have an extradition treaty with Japan, did not arrest him.
