EXPLAINER: Who are Americans on trial in Ghosn's escape
TOKYO (AP) — Americans Michael Taylor and his son Peter Taylor go on trial in Tokyo on Monday on charges they helped Nissan's former chairman, Carlos Ghosn, skip bail and flee to Lebanon in December 2019.
HOW DID THE TAYLORS END UP IN JAPAN?
The Taylors were arrested in Massachusetts in May 2020 and extradited to Japan in March. They have not been released on bail and are not available for comment, which is standard in Japan. They were formally charged in March with helping a criminal escape. Michael Taylor, a former Green Beret, told The Associated Press while still in the U.S. that Peter was not in Japan when Ghosn fled the country. The elder Taylor has helped parents rescue abducted children, gone undercover for the FBI and worked as a contractor for the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan.
WHAT HAPPENED WITH GHOSN?
Ghosn led Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co. for two decades before his arrest in Tokyo in November 2018. He was charged with falsifying securities reports in underreporting his compensation and with breach of trust. He says he is innocent and the compensation he is accused of not reporting was never decided on or paid. Ghosn says he feared he would not get a fair trial in Japan, where more than 99% of criminal cases result in convictions. Japanese prosecutors say he paid at least $1.3 million to organize his escape. Ghosn is on Interpol's wanted list, but Japan has no extradition treaty with Lebanon.
ESCAPE IN A BOX
Tokyo prosecutors say Michael Taylor and another man, George-Antoine Zayek, hid Ghosn in a large box meant to carry audio equipment, snuck him through airport security in Osaka, central Japan, and loaded him onto a private jet to Turkey. Peter Taylor is accused of meeting with Ghosn to help with the escape. Zayek has not been arrested. A U.S. appeals court rejected the...
