Ghosn’s Attorney Decries Japan’s “Hostage Justice”

The head of Carlos Ghosn’s defense team in Japan has blasted today’s re-arrest of the former Nissan Motor Co. chairman as “hostage justice.”

Attorney Junichiro Hironaka tells reporters that Ghosn has been returned to the Tokyo jail where he spent 108 days before being granted bail last month. Japan’s legal system allows prosecutors to hold suspects indefinitely by periodically leveling new charges against them.

Prosecutors did just that to justify today’s arrest, citing a suspicious payment ordered by Ghosn to an auto distributor in Oman. Prosecutors used the occasion to also confiscate the passport and cellphone of Ghosn’s wife, who is not a suspect.

Hironaka accuses prosecutors of trying to intimidate Ghosn, interfere with his efforts to develop a defense and pressure him to confess to wrongdoing. The move also thwarts the press conference Ghosn announced via Twitter for next week, in which he hoped to tell his side of the drama.

It isn’t clear how Ghosn accessed Twitter. Under the restrictive terms of his bail, Ghosn is prohibited from using the internet and has access to a phone with no email or internet service.