Men Accused of Helping Ghosn Flee Japan Challenge US Extradition Case

Security footage shows Michael Taylor (center) and George-Antoine Zayek, both wanted by Japan, at passport control at Istanbul Airport in Turkey in December. (AP)
Security footage shows Michael Taylor (center) and George-Antoine Zayek, both wanted by Japan, at passport control at Istanbul Airport in Turkey in December. (AP)
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Men Accused of Helping Ghosn Flee Japan Challenge US Extradition Case

Security footage shows Michael Taylor (center) and George-Antoine Zayek, both wanted by Japan, at passport control at Istanbul Airport in Turkey in December. (AP)
Security footage shows Michael Taylor (center) and George-Antoine Zayek, both wanted by Japan, at passport control at Istanbul Airport in Turkey in December. (AP)

Lawyers for the former Green Beret and son wanted by Japan for helping former Nissan Motor Co. boss Carlos Ghosn flee the country on Monday argued US authorities wrongly arrested them for aiding a crime that they say does not exist in Japan: bail jumping.

Lawyers for Michael Taylor and his son, Peter Taylor, in a motion asked a federal judge in Boston to quash the US warrants issued last month for their arrests or release them on bail while their extradition case proceeds.

US authorities arrested the Taylors in May at Japan’s request for allegedly smuggling Ghosn out of the country in a box while he was out on bail awaiting trial on financial charges.

Their lawyers on Monday argued that neither bail jumping nor helping someone do so are crimes in Japan.

The defense attorneys said that fact is “so far beyond dispute that the Japanese government has begun considering whether it should amend the law to make such conduct a crime.”

While Japan has issued arrest warrants for the Taylors, their lawyers said the crime stated in the Japanese warrants is an immigration offense, a non-extraditable misdemeanor.

The lawyers added that neither Taylor, including Michael, a US Army Special Forces veteran who founded a private security company, pose a flight risk requiring them to be held without bail.

The Justice Department and Japanese embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.

US authorities arrested the Taylors in Harvard, Massachusetts, on May 20 at the request of Japan, which in January issued arrest warrants for both men in connection with facilitating the Dec. 29, 2019 escape. A third man, George-Antoine Zayek, is also wanted by Tokyo in connection with facilitating the escape.

Ghosn fled to Lebanon, his childhood home, while he was awaiting trial on charges that he engaged in financial wrongdoing, including by understating his compensation in Nissan’s financial statements. He denies wrongdoing.



Israel Launches Communications Satellite from Florida

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lifts off at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center before the launch of Axiom Space Axiom Mission on June 25, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images/AFP
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lifts off at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center before the launch of Axiom Space Axiom Mission on June 25, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images/AFP
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Israel Launches Communications Satellite from Florida

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lifts off at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center before the launch of Axiom Space Axiom Mission on June 25, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images/AFP
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lifts off at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center before the launch of Axiom Space Axiom Mission on June 25, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images/AFP

Israel on Sunday said it had launched a new national communications satellite on board a SpaceX rocket from the United States.

The Dror 1 satellite was blasted into orbit on a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral in Florida, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and the foreign ministry said.

"This $200 million 'smartphone in space' will power Israel's strategic and civilian communications for 15 years," the ministry wrote on X.

Accompanying video footage showed the reusable, two-stage rocket lift off into the night sky. SpaceX said the launch happened at 1:04 am in Florida (0504 GMT Sunday).

IAI, which called the launch "a historic leap for Israeli space technology", said when it announced the project to develop and build Dror 1 that it was "the most advanced communication satellite ever built in Israel".

In September 2016, an unmanned Falcon 9 rocket exploded during a test in Florida, destroying Israel's Amos-6 communications satellite, which was estimated to have cost between $200 and 300 million.