Sushree Mohanty
Turkish court sentenced an executive for Turkish jet organization MNG and two other pilots for their participation and role in sneaking or smuggling migrants in flying Carlos Ghosn, the former Nissan Motor Co Ltd Chairman, out of Japan and fleeing to Lebanon in early 2020.
The court condemned them to four years and two months prison. However, their Attorney stated that they were not expected to spend time in jail as they had already been imprisoned for a while.
Two other pilots and an airline steward were cleared of the accusations, while charges were dropped against another air hostess.
Ghosn, earlier a renowned name in the motor industry, was detained in Japan in late 2018 and accused of underreporting his compensation and utilizing organization funds for personal expense purposes. Carlos denied all the charges leveled against him.
The ousted chairman of the collaborated business between Renault, Nissan Motor Co and Mitsubishi Motors Corp had been anticipating preliminary trial under house arrest in Japan when he fled to Beirut via Istanbul in December 2019.
Ghosn, who holds French, Lebanese and Brazilian citizenship, is still residing in Beirut as a fugitive. Earlier he had reported that he would be opening a college business program in his hometown, Beirut.
Lebanon has not signed any extradition settlement with Japan.
A top executive officer from Turkish private luxury jet administrator MNG Jet and four other pilots were arrested by Turkish authorities toward the beginning of January 2020 and accused of migrants smuggling.
The advocate for one of the indicted pilots, Erem Yucel, told the media that he and his council will be filing an appeal against the decision.
Sentenced pilot Noyan Pasin said that staff and authorities had not presumed anything wrong or illegal with the flight, either in Japan or Turkey, so it was not correct to single out and accuse the pilots.
“We were expected to be suspicious and were sentenced because we weren’t suspicious,” he stated to the media reporters.
The defendants were set free from prison in July, when the initial hearing for the matter was held, and are not expected to serve prison time again due to time they served earlier.
Japan has not requested an extradition order against the accused for indictments and trials as per their State law.
The Ghosn case shook the international car industry to its core, at one point risking the Renault-Nissan partnership which he pioneered for, and on the other hand has resulted in extensive scrutiny and investigation into Japan’s legal or judicial structure.
hRenault and Nissan have attempted to recuperate profit following his tenure, during which the two automakers say Ghosn diverted all his attention towards growth of sales and market shares only.