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 army issues new evacuation warnings in Lebanon
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders for dozens of locations in Lebanon on Tuesday, including a warning for residents in two southern Beirut neighborhoods to stay away from several buildings ahead of imminent military action.
“Urgent warning to the residents of Lebanon, specifically in the villages which names are shown. For your safety you must evacuate your homes immediately,” said a statement by the military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee on Telegram, which listed 50 locations.
Many of the locations were across the south of Lebanon, which Israel regularly targets with the aim of hitting Hezbollah infrastructure.
“You are located near Hezbollah facilities and interests, against which the IDF will operate in the near future,” he told the residents of southern Beirut neighborhoods Ghobeiry and Haret Hreik in another evacuation warning.
Lebanon’s government on Monday took the unprecedented step of banning Hezbollah’s military and security activity, prompting the Iran-backed group to lash out at the decision.
Hezbollah is represented in both the government and parliament, and the move came hours after it announced it had launched rockets and drones toward Israel early Monday to avenge the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli attacks.
Israel bombarded Beirut’s southern suburbs and dozens of villages in south Lebanon on Monday in response, vowing to make the group pay a “heavy price.”
The Lebanese health ministry said the strikes killed at least 31 people and wounded at least 149.
