New details in the Ghosn case … 7 people accused of smuggling it

The Turkish prosecutor’s office has completed the preparation of an indictment of seven people, including four pilots, in connection with the flight of Carlos Ghosn, former Nissan president, from Japan to Lebanon through Istanbul, according to a lawyer announced Sunday.

The defense attorney for one of the suspects said the accusation, which was accepted by a court in Istanbul last Thursday, formally directed the four pilots and a company official for “smuggling an immigrant,” an accusation that reaches their maximum sentence of 8 years in prison.

“Two hosts are accused of failing to report the crime, which could carry a prison sentence of up to one year,” lawyer Mohammed Fateh Danaji told Reuters. The prosecution did not comment.

The Turkish police arrested the suspects on January 2, and an Interior Ministry official was quoted at the time as saying that the Turkish border police had not received a notification of Ghosn’s arrival, nor had he been admitted or disconnected.

The next day, Turkish private jet company MNG Jet said Carlos Ghosn illegally used two of his planes to flee Japan, using an employee who falsified the records to remove his name from the documents. The company said at the time that it had filed a criminal complaint.

Ghosn had fled to Lebanon to escape the Japanese justice system, which Ghosn described as “a manipulator” as he faced charges related to financial crimes that he denied.