Lebanon to comply with Interpol’s request to hand Carlos Ghosn over to France

Lebanon obtained an Interpol red notice for the detention of businessman Carlos Ghosn at the appeal of France but is unlikely to deport him, according to a judicial source.

The 68-year-old auto company tycoon, who holds French, Lebanese, and Brazilian citizenship, fled to Lebanon in December 2019 uncertain trial in Japan. He was under house arrest since 2018.

The Lebanese judiciary obtained the notice on Thursday. It is founded on an international arrest warrant issued by the French authorities about a month ago.

A judicial source reported that the Lebanese Attorney General, Judge Ghassan Oueidat, received the contract based on hearings held by a council of French judges who visited Lebanon for the first time in June 2021. They heard Ghosn over the course of four days about a case filed against him in Paris.

Ghosn was president of Nissan and Mitsubishi and CEO of Renault when he was detained in 2018 on orders of “failing to disclose his full salary and using company funds for personal purposes.”

France charges him with being responsible for “over 15 million euros ($ 15.8 million) in questionable payments between his Renault-Nissan alliance and the assets Ghosn held at the wealthy Palace of Versailles, including the conscious use of company resources to host a party for personal purposes. ”

The source said that Judge Oueidat should have directed the Interpol notice to the discriminatory Attorney General, Judge Imad Qabalan, who attended the hearings of the French judicial commission with Ghosn.

Based on the notice, Judge Qabalan can question Ghosn and determine whether he should be arrested, the source said.

“If Judge Qabalan finds Ghosn guilty of any crime, he can request his complete file from the French authorities and try him in Lebanon under the Lebanese penal code,” the person said.

“In the event that the crimes attributed to Ghosn are not mentioned in the criminal code, or if they are allegations that the Lebanese penal code does not outlaw, he will leave him alone.”

The source reported that although Lebanon and France had an extradition treaty, Ghosn would be prosecuted in Lebanon for having Lebanese nationality, adding that Lebanon had banned the executive from traveling.

Lebanon seized Ghosn’s passports in 2020 and did not apply to get them back.

The tycoon fled Japan by hiding in his luggage on a private plane that took off from Kansai International Airport. Since then he has been in Lebanon and has continually rejected any wrongdoing.

An American father and son helped Ghosn escape Japan. The United States gave them over to the Japanese authorities and revealed in a Tokyo court that they had been paid $ 1.3 million to do so. They face a prison sentence of up to three years.

Meanwhile, Lebanese judicial authorities dismissed 72-year-old Ziad Taqi Al-Din on Thursday, whose name had been connected to suits related to fraud and fraud allegations filed in Paris against former French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

Taqi Al-Din, who has dual Lebanese and French nationality, was captured in Beirut in 2020 on the basis of an international arrest warrant issued by Interpol. He was later released on bail with a travel ban and his passport was confiscated.

The Lebanese judiciary ordered his file in Paris for the Beirut trial, refusing to hand it over to the French judiciary.