How did Carlos Ghosn escape Japan?

He was once a titan of the car industry that held hero status in Japan. He then became one of the country’s most well-known criminal suspects. Now he’s an international fugitive.

Carlos Ghosn, the multi-millionaire former boss of Nissan, spent months preparing to stand trial on financial misconduct charges. At least, that was what the Japanese authorities were led to believe.

He posted 1bn yen (£6.8m; $8.9m) in bail in April. He was monitored by a 24-hour camera installed outside his house. His use of technology was heavily restricted and he was banned from traveling abroad.

Then, in a move that left Japan red-faced and his own legal team baffled, he appeared in Lebanon on New Year’s Eve. “I have escaped injustice and political persecution,” he declared in a statement.

“We were completely caught by surprise. I am dumbfounded,” his lawyer, Junichiro Hironaka, told a crowd of reporters in Tokyo shortly after learning of Mr. Ghosn’s flight. “I want to ask him, ‘How could you do this to us?'”

Another pressing question is: how did he do it at all?

One Lebanese TV channel – MTV – reported that Mr. Ghosn had fled his court-approved residence in Tokyo with the assistance of a paramilitary group who were disguised amongst a band of musicians.

It said the band had performed at his house and, shortly after they had finished, the 65-year-old hid in a large musical instrument case which was then hurried to a local airport. If this really happened, it may have been a tight squeeze even for Mr. Ghosn, whose height is reported at 5ft 6in (167cm).

According to the MTV story, he then flew to Turkey, before arriving in Lebanon on a private jet. The broadcaster provided no proof for this theory which, unsurprisingly, spread rapidly across social media.

But donning a spy-movie disguise is not beyond Mr. Ghosn. In March, in a bid to throw journalists off his scent, he left prison disguised as a construction worker. He was quickly identified, mocked in the media, and his lawyer soon apologized for the “amateur plan”.

The former CEO’s getaway from Tokyo to Beirut was meticulously planned over a period of several weeks, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The newspaper, which cited a number of unidentified sources, said a team was carefully assembled to carry out the plot. The group reportedly included accomplices in Japan who transported Mr. Ghosn from his house and onto a private jet bound for Istanbul. From there, he continued his journey to Beirut where he arrived in the early hours of 30 December.

The plane tracking site FlightRadar24 showed a Bombardier Challenger private jet arriving at Beirut-Rafic Hariri international airport shortly after 04:00 local time. Mr. Ghosn then met his wife Carole, who was born in the city and was heavily involved in the operation, the Wall Street Journal says.

Several reports have said Carole Ghosn was a major figure behind the plan for her husband to skip bail and get out of Japan. She spoke with him for more than an hour on 24 December, Mr. Ghosn’s Japanese lawyer said. The couple had previously been banned from meeting or communicating under Mr. Ghosn’s strict bail conditions.

After her husband arrived in Lebanon, Mrs. Ghosn told the Wall Street Journal that their reunion was “the best gift of my life”. She has not commented on her alleged involvement in the operation.

Three passports

Questions remain about the documents Mr. Ghosn used to enter Lebanon. He holds three passports – Brazilian, French and Lebanese – but his legal team maintains that they were in possession of all of them when he left Japan. It is not known whether Mr. Ghosn was holding duplicate passports – as business people are sometimes allowed to do.

While the French newspaper Le Monde said he traveled on an ID card, others have reported that he used a French passport or a false identity with forged documents. Lebanon’s foreign ministry has not said what passport Mr. Ghosn traveled on but insisted that he entered the country legally.

The embarrassment caused by Mr. Ghosn’s flight soon sparked a reaction from Japan. One Japanese politician asked whether he “had the support of some country”. A former governor of Tokyo was more forthright, accusing Lebanon of direct involvement.

“The government has nothing to do with [Mr. Ghosn’s] decision to come,” Lebanese minister Salim Jreissati was quoted as saying by the New York Times. “We don’t know the circumstances of his arrival.”

There is no extradition deal between Japan and Lebanon, which means the future of Mr. Ghosn’s trial is now fraught with uncertainty.

Japan gives millions in aid to Lebanon and will likely want Mr. Ghosn to return. But it will no doubt have to answer further questions about how such a high-profile suspect was able to get out of the country in the first place.