“There are many rumors,” Ghosn told Richard Quest in an interview Wednesday. “And they are not all in line.”
“We knew from the beginning what are the risks, you know, involved [in] an operation like this,” Ghosn said. “We all knew that. I knew what were my risks, I knew what were the risks of all the people who supported the operation.”
Ghosn — the former chairman of Nissan and the architect of its powerful alliance with Renault and Mitsubishi Motors — had been awaiting trial in Japan on charges of financial wrongdoing.
He told CNN Business that he made the decision to flee the country several weeks ago after determining he wouldn’t receive a fair trial.
“I didn’t leave Japan to hide somewhere,” Ghosn said. “I left Japan because I’m looking for justice and I want to clear my name,” he said, claiming he was nervous but felt he had “nothing to lose.”
Ghosn pushed back on the idea that it would be difficult to persuade the public of his innocence while remaining a fugitive.
“People don’t like [a] fugitive when the fugitive is escaping justice. It’s a different opinion when a fugitive is escaping injustice,” he said. “I don’t think that people look at people who run from North Korea, or from Vietnam, or from Russia under the Communist regime as people who are running from justice.”
Asked about media reports that he made it past Japanese authorities and onto a private plane by hiding in a box used to store audio equipment, Ghosn chuckled. He initially declined to comment, before continuing: “Freedom, no matter the way it happens, is always sweet.”
Japanese prosecutors said Wednesday that they are determined to “take whatever measure we have in our power to bring defendant Ghosn to justice in Japan.”
Ghosn said he is willing to face trial outside the country.
“Defendant Carlos Ghosn fled from Japan by acting in a way that could constitute a crime in itself,” Japanese prosecutors said in a statement following Ghosn’s public remarks. “His statements during his press conference today failed to justify his acts.”
In a separate statement, Japanese Justice Minister Masako Mori said that Ghosn “has been propagating both within Japan and internationally false information on Japan’s legal system and its practice.”
“That is absolutely intolerable,” she said.
Source : Nbcnewyork