Ghosn a victim of conspiracy: Lawyer

Bloomberg

Carlos Ghosn is not guilty of the crimes he is accused of and his arrest was the result of a conspiracy at Nissan Motor Co., the jailed car titan’s new lawyer said as he kicked off his defense campaign in Tokyo.
Nissan’s internal problems are the reason behind Ghosn’s jailing in Japan, and the carmaker should have dealt with its issues within the company rather than involve prosecutors, Junichiro Hironaka, Ghosn’s newly appointed defense lawyer, told reporters in Tokyo on Wednesday. He didn’t name any company officials.
The media conference, taking place just days after Ghosn replaced his legal team, is a sign the car executive is going on the offensive in his battle to clear his name. The lawyer’s comments echo those previously made by Ghosn and his family, who have suggested that Ghosn’s plans for a merger between Nissan and its French partner Renault SA were a reason some within Nissan wanted him out of the picture.
Ghosn appears to be deploying a new strategy as a trial on charges of aggravated breach of trust and filing false statements to regulators regarding $80 million in deferred income looms. The ousted leader — who brought Nissan and Renault together with Mitsubishi Motors Corp. in the world’s biggest auto alliance — has lost two requests for bail and faces years in prison in Japan if convicted. He denies the charges.
New Team
Confronting a Japanese legal system with a 99 percent conviction rate, Ghosn replaced a legal group led by former local prosecutor Motonari Otsuru with one overseen by Hironaka, who is known for aggressive tactics defending high-profile clients such as a former senior bureaucrat accused of corruption.
Ghosn is betting that an attorney with a history of challenging the insular Japanese legal world — Hironaka is nicknamed “The Razor” — can make him a free man again. Hironaka successfully defended Atsuko Muraki, a former senior bureaucrat charged in 2009 with falsely certifying an organization as representing disabled people so it could use cheaper postage rates. A third member of Ghosn’s new team, Hiroshi Kawatsu, was part of that defense. Muraki won 37.7 million yen in compensation from the government. Hironaka also helped win acquittal for longtime politician Ichiro Ozawa, who was indicted in 2011 for allegedly being involved in a campaign finance scandal. Ghosn’s former chief lawyer Otsuru was one of the leading prosecutors in that case.
Ghosn’s case has put Japan’s justice system under a spotlight. It has been criticized for its heavy reliance on defendants’ confessions, which are often made without a lawyer being present. In an emailed statement to media Wednesday, the International Federation for Human Rights urged Japan to address “serious flaws” in its criminal justice system exposed by Ghosn’s jailing. Hironaka also said the case raises questions about Japan’s legal system.