Japanese prosecutors arrested on Tuesday two U.S. citizens on suspicion of aiding the escape of former Nissan Motor Corp. Chairman Carlos Ghosn, who fled to Lebanon after being indicted over violation of the Companies Law. The arrest took place after the U.S. decided to extradite the pair to Japan.
The two men -- U.S. Army special forces veteran Michael Taylor, 60, and his son Peter Taylor, 28 -- were put on an airplane that departed Boston and arrived in Narita Airport shortly after 4 p.m. Tuesday. They are expected to be sent to the Tokyo Detention House in Kosuge, Tokyo's Katsushika Ward, and the special investigative team of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office will try to clarify the details of the 66-year-old Ghosn's escape in December 2019.
The two are suspected of conspiring with George Zayek, 61, also an American, to help Ghosn leave Japan illegally in a private jet from Kansai Airport on Dec. 29, 2019.
According to announcements by the Japanese prosecutors and documents submitted to federal courts by the U.S. authorities, Peter Taylor visited Japan at least three times in 2019, from July to early December. In addition to meeting with Ghosn at the office of Ghosn's lawyer, Junichiro Hironaka, he is said to have visited Japan on Dec. 28, 2019, and met with Ghosn at a hotel in Tokyo.
Michael Taylor and Zayek came to Japan in a private jet the following day. They are said to have escorted and guarded Ghosn from Tokyo to Osaka, loaded a box in which Ghosn was hiding into the private jet, and then boarded the jet, heading for Turkey. Ghosn was found to have entered Lebanon on Dec. 31. Japanese prosecutors obtained an arrest warrant on Jan. 30, 2020, for Ghosn on suspicion of violating the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law, as well as warrants for Zayek and the two Taylors on suspicion of helping Ghosn to violate the law as well as hiding a criminal suspect.
The Taylors then returned to the U.S. by way of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. In May, the U.S. authorities arrested them in compliance with the Japan-U.S. extradition treaty.
In response to the extradition request from Japan, the federal court in Massachusetts ruled in September that extradition was possible, and the U.S. State Department approved the extradition in October. Lawyers for the two filed a petition to nullify the extradition with a district court, which in January dismissed it. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene in the district court's decision.
In the meantime, Zayek's whereabouts are unknown, and the Tokyo prosecutors continue to gather information.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
