About 14 months have passed since Carlos Ghosn's audacious escape from Japan to Lebanon sent shock waves around the world. However, many details about the escape still remain unknown.
How did the three men suspected of helping the former Nissan Motor Co. chairman flee communicate with him while he was on bail with various restrictions? The focus of attention will now fall on the special investigators and whether they will be able to uncover the full story of the escape plot.
Michael Taylor and his son Peter Taylor, two U.S. nationals suspected of being involved in the escape, arrived in Japan on Tuesday afternoon after being arrested by the special investigation squad of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office.
-- Surveillance cameras
"I am now in Lebanon and will no longer be held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system," Ghosn said in a statement released via a U.S. spokesperson on Dec. 31, 2019, after he had fled to the Middle Eastern country.
The special investigation squad subsequently searched the residence in Tokyo that he had been staying in while on bail on Jan. 2, 2020 over the suspected violation of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law.
The names of Michael Taylor, 60, his son Peter, 28, and George Zayek, 61, surfaced as suspects in Ghosn's escape to Lebanon based on analysis of security cameras and other materials.
According to a probe by the special investigation squad and others, Peter Taylor visited Japan four times and met Ghosn several times from July 2019 to Dec. 29, 2019, the day Ghosn fled from Japan.
Michael Taylor and Zayek arrived at Kansai Airport by private jet on the day of Ghosn's escape and traveled to Tokyo on a Shinkansen train. After meeting Ghosn in a hotel room booked by Peter Taylor, they returned to Osaka with Ghosn. They are suspected of leaving Japan with Ghosn hidden in a box for audio equipment, according to the investigation.
Ghosn, who was on bail at that time, was living in a residence equipped with surveillance cameras and restricted from using means of communication such as mobile phones and the internet due to the conditions set for his bail.
Very few details are known about when and how Ghosn got to know the three men and what they discussed before the escape.
-- Well-known in security field
Michael Taylor was a former member of the U.S. Army special forces known as the Green Berets. According to U.S. court records, he was dispatched to Lebanon in 1982 and continued to be involved in training militia members in the country among other activities even after he left the army in 1983.
In 1994, he established a private military and security company in Massachusetts and began building a career as a security consultant in the Middle East working with media outlets, airlines and U.S. government officials among others. Michael Taylor was a well-known figure in the security industry who was involved in the 2009 rescue mission of a New York Times reporter detained in Afghanistan. However, he was indicted in 2012 on charges of bribery over a contract with the U.S. military and was detained for 14 months.
His son, Peter Taylor, graduated from a school in Massachusetts and earned an undergraduate degree from a Lebanese university. After graduation, he returned to Massachusetts and developed and operated an online tutoring business for students in Lebanon.
Both suspects are believed to have been residing outside the United States after their involvement in Ghosn's escape. Michael Taylor returned to the United States in February 2020, and Peter Taylor in the following month, both from Dubai.
In May of the same year, U.S. authorities arrested the two after learning Peter Taylor had booked a flight to Lebanon.
Meanwhile, the whereabouts of Zayek, for whom the special investigation squad had obtained an arrest warrant along with the Taylors, are unknown. Lebanon-born Zayek is believed to have belonged to a militia in the country and is a long-time acquaintance of Michael Taylor.
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