Key Dates In The Carlos Ghosn Saga

Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn is a fugitive in Lebanon ANWAR AMRO via AFP
Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn is a fugitive in Lebanon ANWAR AMRO via AFP
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Key Dates In The Carlos Ghosn Saga

Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn is a fugitive in Lebanon ANWAR AMRO via AFP
Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn is a fugitive in Lebanon ANWAR AMRO via AFP

From his shock detention to an audacious escape from Japan, the rollercoaster saga of former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn has grabbed headlines around the world.

As Japanese prosecutors seek a two-year jail sentence for Ghosn's aide Greg Kelly, here are the key dates to know:

Ghosn and his aide Greg Kelly are arrested on suspicion of financial misconduct on November 19, after arriving in Tokyo on separate private planes.

They are accused of devising a scheme to under-report the salary of Ghosn, then Nissan chief and head of an alliance between Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors.

The pair deny wrongdoing. Ghosn is swiftly removed from his role at all three firms in a stunning fall from grace for one of the world's best-known businessmen.

Ghosn and Kelly are charged with under-reporting Ghosn's salary between 2010 and 2015, then rearrested on allegations of under-reporting up to 2018.

In December, Ghosn is arrested again on fresh allegations that he transferred losses from personal financial investments to Nissan.

His detention -- in conditions far removed from his flashy lifestyle -- is extended, according to AFP.

Ghosn attends his first court hearing in January, insisting the accusations are "meritless and unsubstantiated".

His first bail request is denied, and two new charges of financial misconduct are filed against him.

The tycoon tells AFP from prison that his detention would "not be normal in any other democracy".

In March, the court approves Ghosn's third request for bail, set at one billion yen ($9 million).

Ghosn is rearrested in a dawn raid of his Tokyo apartment in April.

Authorities hit him with a charge of aggravated breach of trust, alleging he siphoned money for personal ends from cash transferred from Nissan to a dealership in Oman.

The court grants Ghosn a second bail, but he is banned from leaving Japan and requires court permission to see his wife.

Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa resigns amid allegations that he also padded his salary. He denies wrongdoing but apologizes.

Meanwhile, Ghosn and Nissan are accused by US securities regulators of hiding more than $140 million in his expected retirement income from investors.

Ghosn gives authorities the slip -- hiding in an audio equipment case to flee on a private plane to Lebanon, which has no extradition treaty with Japan.

A week later, Ghosn says Nissan colluded with prosecutors to have him arrested because he wanted to deepen the Japanese firm's alliance with Renault.

He says he fled because he did not believe he would get a fair trial.

Two men accused of helping Ghosn flee Japan, former US special forces member Michael Taylor and his son Peter, are extradited from the United States and go on trial in Tokyo.

They apologize for their role in the escape and are sentenced to 20 months' jail time for Peter and two years for Michael.

Japanese prosecutors seek a two-year jail sentence for Kelly on charges of under-reporting Ghosn's compensation, a year after the trial began in September 2020.

"Kelly was behind the efforts to hide Ghosn's income," they said in their statement. "It was a role only Kelly, who had deep trust from Ghosn, could fulfil."

The American lawyer denies wrongdoing. Prosecutors also demand that Nissan, on trial alongside Kelly, be fined 200 million yen ($1.8 million).



Iran-Israel War: A Lifeline for Netanyahu?

FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony on the eve of Israel's Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers at the Yad LaBanim Memorial in Jerusalem, on April 29, 2025. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony on the eve of Israel's Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers at the Yad LaBanim Memorial in Jerusalem, on April 29, 2025. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)
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Iran-Israel War: A Lifeline for Netanyahu?

FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony on the eve of Israel's Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers at the Yad LaBanim Memorial in Jerusalem, on April 29, 2025. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony on the eve of Israel's Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers at the Yad LaBanim Memorial in Jerusalem, on April 29, 2025. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)

The Iran-Israel war has helped strengthen Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu domestically and overseas, just as his grip on power looked vulnerable.

On the eve of launching strikes on Iran, his government looked to be on the verge of collapse, with a drive to conscript ultra-Orthodox Jews threatening to scupper his fragile coalition.

Nearly two years on from Hamas's unprecedented attack in 2023, Netanyahu was under growing domestic criticism for his handling of the war in Gaza, where dozens of hostages remain unaccounted for, said AFP.

Internationally too, he was coming under pressure including from longstanding allies, who since the war with Iran began have gone back to expressing support.

Just days ago, polls were predicting Netanyahu would lose his majority if new elections were held, but now, his fortunes appear to have reversed, and Israelis are seeing in "Bibi" the man of the moment.

– 'Reshape the Middle East' –

For decades, Netanyahu has warned of the risk of a nuclear attack on Israel by Iran -- a fear shared by most Israelis.

Yonatan Freeman, a geopolitics expert at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said Netanyahu's argument that the pre-emptive strike on Iran was necessary draws "a lot of public support" and that the prime minister has been "greatly strengthened".

Even the opposition has rallied behind him.

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is my political rival, but his decision to strike Iran at this moment in time is the right one," opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote in a Jerusalem Post op-ed.

A poll published Saturday by a conservative Israeli channel showed that 54 percent of respondents expressed confidence in the prime minister.

The public had had time to prepare for the possibility of an offensive against Iran, with Netanyahu repeatedly warning that Israel was fighting for its survival and had an opportunity to "reshape the Middle East."

During tit-for-tat military exchanges last year, Israel launched air raids on targets in Iran in October that are thought to have severely damaged Iranian air defenses.

Israel's then-defense minister Yoav Gallant said the strikes had shifted "the balance of power" and had "weakened" Iran.

"In fact, for the past 20 months, Israelis have been thinking about this (a war with Iran)," said Denis Charbit, a political scientist at Israel's Open University.

Since Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Netanyahu has ordered military action in Gaza, against the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, as well as targets in Syria where long-time leader Bashar al-Assad fell in December last year.

"Netanyahu always wants to dominate the agenda, to be the one who reshuffles the deck himself -- not the one who reacts -- and here he is clearly asserting his Churchillian side, which is, incidentally, his model," Charbit said.

"But depending on the outcome and the duration (of the war), everything could change, and Israelis might turn against Bibi and demand answers."

– Silencing critics –

For now, however, people in Israel see the conflict with Iran as a "necessary war," according to Nitzan Perelman, a researcher specialized in Israel at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in France.

"Public opinion supports this war, just as it has supported previous ones," she added.

"It's very useful for Netanyahu because it silences criticism, both inside the country and abroad."

In the weeks ahead of the Iran strikes, international criticism of Netanyahu and Israel's military had reached unprecedented levels.

After more than 55,000 deaths in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, and a blockade that has produced famine-like conditions there, Israel has faced growing isolation and the risk of sanctions, while Netanyahu himself is the subject of an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes.

But on Sunday, two days into the war with Iran, the Israeli leader received a phone call from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, while Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has held talks with numerous counterparts.

"There's more consensus in Europe in how they see Iran, which is more equal to how Israel sees Iran," explained Freeman from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Tuesday that Israel was doing "the dirty work... for all of us."

The idea that a weakened Iran could lead to regional peace and the emergence of a new Middle East is appealing to the United States and some European countries, according to Freeman.

But for Perelman, "Netanyahu is exploiting the Iranian threat, as he always has."