10:54 am, June 11, 2020
A father and son from the US who are accused of smuggling ex-Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn out of Japan are fighting their extradition.
Japanese authorities want Michael and Peter Taylor to face charges, saying they helped Ghosn flee Japan by sneaking him out of the country in a large box in a private plane.
Ghosn absconded from Japan while on bail and awaiting trial on financial misconduct allegations.
Lawyers for the pair, however, have said ‘bail jumping’ is not a crime in Japan and, therefore, helping someone evade their bail conditions isn’t a crime either.
The attorneys accused US authorities of ‘attempting to transform Japanese law to criminalise the act of helping someone engage in an act that is not itself criminal’.
‘Japan has never prosecuted anyone, including Ghosn, for “escaping” bail conditions,’ they wrote.
‘To the contrary, in the wake of Ghosn’s departure from Japan, numerous news articles have reported on the fact that what Mr Ghosn did was not a crime.’
The lawyers told the judge that the Taylors should be released from jail while they challenge the extradition, because they do not pose a risk of flight or danger to the community.
Michael Taylor, 59, and Peter Taylor, 27, were arrested last month in the town of Harvard, Massachusetts, as reported by Car Dealer.
Authorities say the Taylors helped sneak Ghosn out of Japan on a private jet to Turkey and then Lebanon, where Ghosn has citizenship and which has no extradition treaty with Japan.
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