Ousted Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn said at a news conference in Beirut Wednesday it is “impossible” to express the depths of deprivation he faced during his arrest in Japan.
He claimed he was questioned by Japanese authorities for eight hours a day without a lawyer, adding that they threatened to harm his family if he did not confess.
“It will just get worse for you if you don’t confess,” Ghosn quoted a prosecutor as saying. “We will go after your family if you don’t confess.”
He added that the financial misconduct charges against him are “baseless” and Nissan’s performance decline at the start of 2017 was one cause of his ordeal.
“I should never have been arrested in the first place,” he added.
Ghosn claimed some Japanese government officials were involved with the prosecutor and Nissan in staging the allegations. He chose not to name the officials in order to “protect the government of Lebanon.”
Since he was “presumed guilty,” Ghosn says he had “no choice” but to flee, however, Ghosn said he will not talk about how he fled Japan.
Ghosn said he is proud to be Lebanese because Lebanon stood by him during “these difficult times.”
“I’m here to clear my name,” Ghosn said. “The charges against me are baseless.”
He was speaking at his first press conference since he was arrested in November 2018 and since he skipped bail and fled to Lebanon in December.
