Ghosn attributes his arrest to a "plot" by Nissan executives

Ghosn attributes his arrest to a "plot" by Nissan executives

He argues that he was "betrayed" by the executives of the Japanese firm opposed to the integration in the alliance with Renault

  The ex-president of Nissan Motor Carlos Ghosn attributed Wednesday his detention in Tokyo to a "plot" against him and maintains that he was "betrayed" by executives of the firm when he tried to deepen the alliance with Renault and Mitsubishi Motors. Ghosn was arrested in Tokyo on November 19 and faces legal charges for allegedly concealing millionaire financial compensation agreed with Nissan and allegedly using the firm to cover personal financial losses.

In an interview granted to the financial newspaper 'Nikkei' in the prison where he is being held, Ghosn rejected the charges he faces and denied that his management of the Japanese firm had become a "dictatorship" headed by him.

Ghosn maintains that he was "betrayed" by other Nissan executives opposed to a "deeper integration" in the alliance made two decades ago between Renault and Nissan and later joined by Mitsubishi when it was controlled by the Japanese firm.

This plan for greater integration had been analyzed last September by Ghosn with Nissan Motor CEO Hiroto Saikawa, and although Ghosn wanted to link Mitsubishi executives to these talks, Saikawa preferred to keep them on the sidelines. As a result of his detention, Saikawa, when he gave public explanations about the arrest, said that Ghosn, who then retained the presidencies of Renault, Nissan Motor and Mitsubishi Motors, concentrated too much power .

In the interview with 'Nikkei', which lasted for twenty minutes in the detention center in Tokyo where he is arrested, said that when accused of leading a "dictatorship" only hides the intention to displace him. According to Ghosn, those who accuse him of that aim only to "distort reality" to "get rid of him" .

He also asserted that some of the facts of which he is allegedly responsible were known to Nissan management, who after his arrest informed that his arrest was the result of an internal investigation and statements by company executives. «Have I done something inappropriate? I am not a lawyer, I do not know how to interpret these facts, "said Ghosn, born in Brazil and educated in Lebanon and France, a country where he developed his professional career.

Regarding the conditions of his detention, he said that he had "ups and downs," even though he was in good health. His relatives have publicly complained about, among other things, the limitations in the food that he has, which are common to all the detainees.