Screen grab of Carlos Ghosn, who has appealed to France for help defending himself against charges in Japan (Handout)

Paris (AFP) – Few tears have been shed for fallen auto titan Carlos Ghosn in France, where the government is wary of being seen as meddling in Japan’s affairs or of trying to obtain preferential treatment for a multi-millionaire, analysts said.

France was caught off guard last November when then Renault and Nissan boss Ghosn was dramatically arrested stepping off a plane in Tokyo, on charges of under-reporting millions of dollars in salary.

“Nobody saw it coming,” sources close to Renault, in which the French state has a 15-percent stake, said.

As the days turned to weeks and Ghosn — whose bumper pay packages had long been a bone of contention in France — remained behind bars, the government’s main concern seemed to be safeguarding the Renault-Nissan alliance.

But since the 65-year-old French-Lebanese-Brazilian businessman was taken back into custody last week in Japan, a month after being released on bail, calls for the French government to intercede on his behalf have grown.

– Ghosn, the ‘hostage’ –

A lawyer for his family, Francois Zimeray, told France Info public radio Monday that Ghosn’s lawyers had written to the Tokyo prosecutor’s office to ask them “to stop torturing Carlos Ghosn”.

“The word is not too strong,” Zimeray argued, accusing the judiciary in Japan, where suspects can be kept for 23 days without charge and are often kept behind bars until their trial, of “taking a person hostage until they crack and make a confession.”

Jean-Yves Le Borgne, another of Ghosn’s lawyers, said Tuesday that he did not believe Ghosn would receive a fair trial in Japan and urged President Emmanuel Macron to have him transferred to France.

Noting that under French law a person accused of committing a crime overseas can be tried in France, Le Borgne told BFM television: “I believe that if we want Carlos Ghosn to benefit from a trial carried out in respectable conditions, in line with our values… it would only be possible in France.”

But while it has rattled the business world, the so-called Ghosn affair has left many in France unmoved.

Revelations in February that Ghosn had obtained the use of the Palace of Versailles for his 2016 wedding party added to the fierce resentment of elites among “yellow vest” protesters behind weeks of often-violent demonstrations over inequality.

In an April 4 editorial French daily Le Monde praised Renault for scrapping some of Ghosn’s salary for 2018. “It’s the least it could do,” the paper wrote.

– French ‘meddling’ –

In an interview recorded just before his latest arrest, Ghosn himself called on the French government “to defend me” against a case that he has presented as a “conspiracy” by Nissan executives angry as what they saw as Renault’s attempt to dominate the Renault-Nissan alliance.

His wife Carole received help from France’s ambassador to Japan to flee Tokyo last week amid reports that investigators planned to question her also.

Despite her Lebanese passport being confiscated by Japanese authorities, Carole said she was able to use her US passport to board a flight and was accompanied by the ambassador to the airport.

“He didn’t leave me until the plane,” she told Le Journal du Dimanche weekly, asking that Macron intervene to ensure that Ghosn’s “presumption of innocence be respected, like that of any French citizen.”

A day earlier, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian raised Ghosn’s fate with his Japanese counterpart Taro Kono during a G7 meeting in the French resort of Dinard.

While insisting that “France respects completely the sovereignty and independence of the Japanese judiciary” Le Drian said he also reminded Kono “of our attachment to the presumption of innocence and the full rights of consular protection.”

For Akira Hashimoto, a lawyer enrolled at the bar both in Paris and Tokyo, Le Drian’s remarks smacked of “meddling”.

“Mr Ghosn is not being badly treated,” Hashimoto told AFP, arguing that the Japanese judiciary, which has kept Japanese politicians in preventive custody for over a year, had, on the contrary, shown him mercy.

The leader of the France’s opposition Republicans party, Laurent Wauquiez, agreed that France should refrain from interfering.

“If he (Ghosn) has a case to answer in Japan, he must be tried in Japan,” Wauquiez said.

Disclaimer: Validity of the above story is for 7 Days from original date of publishing. Source: AFP.