Japan court jails US duo over Ghosn escape
July 19, 2021
A Tokyo court on Monday sentenced a father and son from the United States to jail time for helping former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn escape the country.
The court handed down the first sentence in Japan over the case since Ghosn was arrested in 2018 on charges of financial fraud.
Former US special forces operative Michael Taylor received a two-year sentence and his son Peter was sentenced to 20 months in prison.
"This case enabled Ghosn, a defendant of serious crime, to escape overseas," said Hideo Nirei, the chief judge of the Tokyo district court. "One year and a half has passed, but there is no prospect of the trial being held."
What is their role in the case?
In June, the duo had pleaded guilty and apologized before a Tokyo court for their roles in Ghosn's escape.
Prosecutors said the Taylors had hidden Ghosn in a crate that was marked as containing musical instruments to smuggle him out of Japan in a private plane. They said the pair received $1.3 million (€1.1 million) for their services and another $500,000 for legal costs.
Michael and Peter Taylor were arrested and detained in the US before their extradition to Japan.
Their defense team had sought suspended sentences for the two as they had spent 10 months detained in the US.
Under Japanese law, the maximum penalty for helping a criminal is three years in prison.
What is the Ghosn case?
The former chairman of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi carmaking alliance was arrested in Japan in November 2018 on charges of under-reporting his salary and misusing company assets.
He has denied all the initial charges against him
A few months later, Ghosn was released on house arrest. He then disappeared and resurfaced in Lebanon by the end of 2019.
Japan has been trying to have Ghosn sent back but it doesn't have an extradition treaty with Lebanon. Ghosn, who has a Lebanese nationality, has never commented on how he got to Lebanon.
A former top Nissan executive, Greg Kelly, is also on trial in Tokyo on charges of falsifying securities reports on Ghosn's compensation — which carry the maximum penalty of up to 15 years in prison.
fb/rc (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)