Surveillance video has shown Carlos Ghosn, the former Nissan Motor Co. chairman who was on bail facing trial for alleged financial misconduct, leaving his home alone in Tokyo around noon last Sunday, hours before his departure from Japan, an investigative source said Friday.
The information is in contrast to foreign media reports and a claim a friend has made that Ghosn hid in a musical instrument case which people who assisted his dramatic escape from Japan carried onto a private jet. Ghosn's wife Carole has called the account "fiction."
In an escape from what he claimed is a "rigged" justice system, Ghosn arrived in Lebanon on Monday via Turkey after jumping bail in Japan. He apparently left from Kansai International Airport in Osaka on a private jet on Sunday night.
According to the source, the footage by a camera installed at Ghosn's house did not show him returning home, prompting Tokyo prosecutors to suspect he may have joined someone at another location before heading to the airport.
It did not capture any people entering or leaving the house around the time Ghosn left.
(Media crews gather on Jan. 2, 2020, at the Beirut residence of Carlos Ghosn)
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Ghosn, the former chief of the Nissan-Renault auto alliance who holds Brazilian, French and Lebanese nationality, was released on bail in April on conditions that included a ban on foreign travel.
Meanwhile, a Turkish private jet operator said Friday that Ghosn used two of its planes illegally in his escape from Japan, with an employee falsifying lease records to exclude the fugitive's name from documents.
MNG Jet said one plane flew from Osaka to Istanbul and the other from Istanbul to Beirut, and that the company has filed a criminal complaint in Turkey to prosecute those involved in the incident.
"The name of Mr. Ghosn did not appear in the official documentation of any of the flights," it said in a statement.
One employee "has admitted having falsified the records" and confirmed he "acted in his individual capacity," the statement said.
In cooperation with Japanese police and immigration authorities, Tokyo prosecutors have launched an investigation into Ghosn's escape on suspicion he violated the immigration control law since there is no record of his departure.
On Thursday, the Japanese government called on the International Criminal Police Organization to ask the Lebanese government to detain Ghosn.
Lebanese judicial authorities said they have received an Interpol arrest warrant for Ghosn. Lebanon does not have an extradition agreement with Japan, meaning he will not be handed over to Tokyo without Beirut's approval.
