The Supreme Court of the United States lifted, on Saturday February 13, the last obstacle to the extradition to Japan of two men accused of helping Carlos Ghosn, former boss of the Renault-Nissan group, to flee the Archipelago in December 2019.
Judge Stephen Breyer in a short ruling dismissed an appeal filed by Michael Taylor and his son Peter Taylor to stay the decision of Federal Judge Indira Talwani. At the end of January, she felt that the arguments put forward by the two men, according to which they notably risked being subjected to conditions close to torture in Japanese prisons, were not sufficient to derogate from the extradition treaty binding Tokyo. and Washington. She had also stressed that the acts with which they are accused constituted an offense both in the United States and in Japan.
Michael Taylor, a former member of the US special forces converted to private security, and his son Peter were arrested in May 2020 after Japan issued an arrest warrant against them.
Spectacular escape
Peter Taylor was arrested in Boston while on his way to Lebanon, a country where the former Renault-Nissan boss has now taken refuge and which has no extradition treaty with the Japan. Considered to have a “Great risk of flight”, the two men had been imprisoned pending the outcome of the extradition proceedings.
MM. Taylor and the Lebanese George-Antoine Zayek are accused by Tokyo of having allowed the fallen auto tycoon to escape Japanese justice during a spectacular escape that occurred on December 29, 2019. Targeted by complaints for financial embezzlement, Carlos Ghosn was then free on bail.
According to US court documents, the three men apparently helped Mr. Ghosn hide in a large slush fund similar to a musical instrument box, which they then boarded a private jet, the baggage control was not compulsory for this type of aircraft at the time.
