Tokyo–Former Nissan Motor chairman Carlos Ghosn will remain in jail until at least December 20 without the possibility of bail under a Tokyo District Court decision on Tuesday.
Prosecutors indicted Ghosn on Monday on charges of understating his compensation on five years of Nissan’s financial reports, and they also laid out new suspicions that he did the same on an additional three years of the company’s financial reports through the year ended March 2018, reports Efe news.
By bringing forth new suspicions — a process known in Japan as “rearresting” a suspect — prosecutors made it possible to keep Ghosn in jail for additional time without the possibility of bail. Normally, defendants who have been indicted can seek to be released on bail.
Under the court decision Tuesday, Ghosn can be held without bail at the Tokyo Detention House for 10 days ending December 20. Prosecutors can then seek to hold him without bail for an additional 10 days.
Ghosn’s lawyer appealed the decision, the court said.
Ghosn’s right hand man at Nissan, Greg Kelly, was also indicted and rearrested Monday.
He is charged with conspiring with Ghosn to understate Ghosn’s compensation on financial reports.
The court on Tuesday likewise extended Kelly’s detention without bail until December 20.
Once the arrest and rearrests are over, Ghosn will still be in jail because of the indictment, but he can petition the court to be freed on bail.
Ghosn was chairman and chief executive of Nissan through 2017 and continued as chairman until Nissan stripped him of that role on November 22.
Kelly was stripped of his title as representative director on the same day.
Ghosn and Kelly remain Nissan directors. (IANS)
