TOKYO (AP) – Tokyo prosecutors said on Friday they filed an extradition request for two Americans arrested in the United States for allegedly helping Carlos Ghosn, the former Nissan president, flee Japan while on bail.
“We express our deepest appreciation for the cooperation that the US authorities have shown in our request,” the Tokyo District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
“We plan to cooperate in every possible way so that the extradition procedures for the two of them can be carried out quickly,” he said.
Completion of the extradition request does not immediately mean that Michael Taylor, a 59-year-old former private security and green beret specialist, and his 27-year-old son Peter Taylor will be released.
Deputy Chief Prosecutor Takahiro Saito seemed optimistic about the prospects and stressed that the decision was up to the United States. The request had to be submitted within 45 days of the arrests.
Saito said Peter Taylor arrived in Japan last year and met Ghosn at his Japanese lawyer’s office six times, including the day before Ghosn’s escape.
“We believe that planning the escape may be the only reason for his visit to Japan,” he said.
If extradited, the Taylors will be arrested after arriving in Japanese territory and will then be investigated, Saito said.
The suspects are detained and interrogated without an attorney present, sometimes for months, under a system critics call “hostage justice.”
Detained in May in Massachusetts, the Taylor are accused of helping Ghosn flee to Lebanon in December while awaiting trial on charges of financial misconduct.
His lawyer has argued that technically skipping bail is not a crime in Japan.
Japanese prosecutors have dismissed that argument, stressing that Japan has arrest warrants against the Taylor for allegedly helping to escape a criminal, which is a crime under Japanese law.
Prosecutors have also been trying to return Ghosn to Japan, but Lebanon, unlike the United States, does not have an extradition treaty with Japan.
If convicted in Japan, the Taylor could face a maximum sentence of three years in prison and a fine of 300,000 yen ($ 2,800).
Authorities say the Taylors helped get Ghosn out of Japan in a private jet with the former Nissan boss hidden in a large box.
Ghosn, who ran Nissan Motor Co. for two decades, has repeatedly said he is innocent. He said he fled because he believes he could not have a fair trial in Japan.
He faced charges of failing to report future earnings and breach of trust by diverting money from Nissan for personal gain. He says the compensation was never decided or received, and that the payments were legitimate.
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Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/yurikageyama
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