Carlos Ghosn gets bail: Emmanuel Macron says France to remain ‘vigilant’ on ex-Nissan chief’s treatment in Japan

As former Nissan Motor chairman Carlos Ghosn is all set to walk out of Tokyo detention centre after a Japanese court granted him bail on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron said that the country would remain ‘very vigilant’ on the treatment of the 65-year-old during his detention, said media reports.

AFP news agency: Japan court grants $4.5m bail to former Nissan CEO, Carlos Ghosn who was arrested in Tokyo on 19 November for allegedly violating financial laws. (file pic) pic.twitter.com/JHho7JxpMK

— ANI (@ANI) April 25, 2019

Ghosn was set to walk out of the detention centre for a second time since his arrest last year on financial misconduct charges, after posting the $4.5 million bail set by the Tokyo court, said a Reuters report. Meanwhile, French president Emmanuel Macron said that Ghosn is “entitled to the presumption of innocence and consular protection, like all French nationals,” Bloomberg reported citing Macron’s statement on Tuesday. He said it after meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Earlier, Ghosn’s wife Carole had appraised Macron of the nature of treatment that her husband faced during his detention in Japan and termed it as shameful, said the report. [caption id=“attachment_6407971” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Carlos Ghosn and his wife Carole. Reuters[/caption] The bail will enable the former titan of the global auto industry to better prepare for his criminal trial expected later this year, when he will fight his latest charge of aggravated breach of trust along with three other accusations of financial misdoing during his time at the helm of Japan’s Number Two automaker. Ghosn has denied all four charges against him, which include understating his income and temporarily transferring personal financial losses onto Nissan’s books. The Tokyo District Court said in a statement that it had approved a bail request from Ghosn’s defence team and set bail at 500 million yen ($4.5 million), roughly half his previous bail of 1 billion yen. The once-feted executive will be free to leave the detention centre where he has been in custody since his 4 April re-arrest, but his movements and communications will be strictly monitored and restricted to prevent fleeing the country and tampering with evidence, the court said. Ghosn’s lawyers filed the bail request on Monday after the former executive was indicted for allegedly enriching himself at a cost of $5 million to Nissan from July 2017 through July 2018. The court’s decision marks the second time Ghosn has been given bail and is the latest turn in a scandal which has rocked the global auto industry and exposed tensions in the auto-making partnership between Nissan and France’s Renault SA. He was initially released last month, but then re-arrested earlier this month on the new charges , returning to the Tokyo detention centre where he had previously spent 108 days following his first arrest in November.

Ghosn has said he is the victim of a boardroom coup, accusing former Nissan colleagues of “backstabbing”, describing them as selfish rivals bent on derailing a closer alliance between the Japanese automaker and Renault, its top shareholder.

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When he was last released, the former executive traded in his usual tailored suit and chauffeured sedan for a disguise of workman’s uniform, glasses and a mask to slip past reporters before being whisked away in a modest compact van. — With inputs from agencies