BEIRUT: Part of the file being considered by French investigating judges who questioned fugitive former car executive Carlos Ghosn in Beirut this week should be considered invalid, his defense team said on Friday.
French judges have been holding hearings in Beirut’s Palace of Justice since Monday, in a process that Ghosn’s lawyers have called a first for justice since his arrest in Japan in 2018.
“We think based on legal opinion made by an expert that part of the file has to be declared null and void since it is tainted by the mistakes made voluntarily by the Japanese authorities,” one of his lawyers told reporters after the end of hearings.
Ghosn was questioned voluntarily as a witness in the hearings, which are dealing with allegations of financial misconduct in France.
The architect of the Renault-Nissan auto alliance has been fighting multiple probes since fleeing to Lebanon from Japan in late 2019 and has said he hopes to clear his name in financial misconduct cases against him.
Ghosn, who has denied all wrongdoing, was chairman of both Nissan and Mitsubishi and chief executive of Renault when he was arrested on charges of under-reporting his salary and using company funds for personal purposes.
He is at loggerheads with Renault over pension and severance payments he argues are due, and tax authorities have looked into his fiscal arrangements.
The French magistrates were also pursuing questions about events thrown by Ghosn at the sumptuous Palace of Versailles, including whether in one case he knowingly used company resources to host a party that was for private purposes.
The French prosecutor’s office is also looking into financial flows between Renault, its Dutch affiliate and a car dealership in Oman.
Carlos Ghosn’s lawyers say part of French file should be ‘null and void’
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Carlos Ghosn’s lawyers say part of French file should be ‘null and void’
- ‘Part of the file has to be declared null and void since it is tainted by the mistakes made voluntarily by the Japanese authorities,’ a lawyer of Ghosn told reporters
- Ghosn was questioned voluntarily as a witness in the hearings, which are dealing with allegations of financial misconduct in France
Israel’s hostage forum releases AI-generated video of last Gaza captive
- The Gaza ceasefire, which came into effect in October, remains fragile with both sides alleging violations, and mediators fearing that Israel and Hamas alike are stalling
JERUSALEM: An Israeli group representing the families of Gaza hostages released on Tuesday an AI-generated video of Ran Gvili, the last captive whose body is still being held in the Palestinian territory.
The one-minute clip, created whole cloth using artificial intelligence, purports to depict Gvili as he sits in a Gaza tunnel and appeals to US President Donald Trump to help bring his body back to Israel.
“Mr President, I’m asking you to see this through: Please bring me home. My family deserves this. I deserve the right to be buried with honor in the land I fought for,” says the AI-generated image of Gvili.
Gvili was 24 at the time of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
He was an officer in Israel’s Yasam elite police unit and was on medical leave when he learnt of the attack.
He decided to leave his home and brought his gun to counter the Hamas militants.
He was shot in the fighting at the Alumim kibbutz before he was taken to Gaza.
Israeli authorities told Gvili’s parents in January 2024 that he had not survived his injuries.
The AI clip was released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main group representing those taken captive to Gaza.
The Forum said it was published with the approval of Gvili’s family.
“Seeing and hearing Rani speak in his own voice is both moving and heartbreaking. I would give anything to hear, see and hold him again,” Gvili’s mother Talik said, quoted by the Forum.
“But all I can do now is plead that they don’t move to the next phase of the agreement before bringing Rani home — because we don’t leave heroes behind.”
The Gaza ceasefire, which came into effect in October, remains fragile with both sides alleging violations, and mediators fearing that Israel and Hamas alike are stalling.
In the first stage, Palestinian militants were expected to return all of the remaining 48 living and dead hostages held in Gaza.
Since the ceasefire came into effect on October 10, militants have released 47 hostages.
In the next stages of the truce, Israel is supposed to withdraw from its positions in Gaza, an interim authority is to govern the Palestinian territory instead of Hamas, and an international stabilization force is to be deployed.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet Trump in Florida later this month to discuss the second phase of the deal.
