Mr. Ghosn, who has been charged in Japan with an array of financial crimes, was born in Brazil to a Lebanese family, grew up mostly in Lebanon and has lived most of his adult life in France. He has passports from all three countries, though his lawyers in Japan have said that they held the documents.
Turkish news organizations, including the state-run Anadolu news agency, reported that the planes that delivered Mr. Ghosn to Istanbul and Beirut were operated by MNG Jet, a Turkish company that offers chartered flights on business aircraft. Flight tracking websites confirm MNG flights matching Mr. Ghosn’s reported path.
Four of the seven people arrested in Turkey were pilots employed by a private aviation company, two were employees of a company that provides ground services to aircraft, and one was a manager of a private cargo company, according to the Turkish reports.
An official at Havas, a ground services company that operates at Istanbul Ataturk Airport, confirmed that two of its employees were in custody for questioning in the case but said that they were expected to be released later in the day. A person who answered the phone at MNG said no one was available to comment.
It was not clear whether anyone in Turkey knowingly aided Mr. Ghosn, or if he used some kind of subterfuge to avoid detection, like traveling under an alias.
The Bombardier Global Express jet that reportedly carried him to Istanbul is owned by a Turkish company, STE Havacilik, which denied any involvement in his escape. An executive of the company said that when it is not using the plane, it rents the jet to MNG, which uses it for chartered flights. Such arrangements are common with business jets.
Japanese prosecutors on Thursday raided Mr. Ghosn’s sprawling, two-story house in an exclusive neighborhood of central Tokyo. After about four hours, around a dozen men — most of them wearing black suits and surgical masks — carried out heavy black briefcases, ignoring questions journalists who followed them.
Source : Nytimes
