A court in the United States has decided that there is no reason to refuse Japan to extradite two former commandos who, at the end of 2019, helped ex-head of Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Carlos Ghosn escape fr om house arrest in Tokyo.
Boston District Judge Indira Talvani has ruled that retired military men Michael Taylor and his son Peter Taylor can be handed over to Japan as soon as the State Department issues the appropriate paper, Reuters writes.
Lawyers for the Taylors argued that their clients should not be extradited to Japan, as they would be subjected to harsh interrogation and even torture there.
Carlos Ghosn tried to support the position of the lawyers and handed over to the American court an appeal in which he said that he himself faced a violation of human rights in Japan - he was held in custody more than it should be, subjected to psychological pressure and intimidation. Ghosn believes the Taylors will face the same or even worse conditions in Japan.
Judge Talvani said, "Although prison conditions in Japan are deplorable," they cannot be reason enough to deny extradition, and furthermore, the US authorities have decided that the alleged actions of the Taylors are extraditable offences.
Michael and Peter Taylor were arrested in May 2020 at the request of Japan. On October 28, the US State Department approved the decision to extradite them, but on October 29, the Boston District Court granted the lawyers' request to delay the extradition. Now the final decision on this issue has been made.
Prosecutors believe the Taylors facilitated Carlos Ghosn's December 29, 2019 "brazen" escape from Japan by hiding him in a black musical instrument box and flying him on a private jet to Lebanon, wh ere Ghosn is from. The former head of Renault-Nissan allegedly paid the Taylors $1.3 million for help.
Carlos Ghosn was arrested on November 19, 2018 by investigators from the Tokyo Prosecutor's Office on suspicion of violating Japanese financial law. It was alleged that over the course of five years, the top manager received about 10 billion yen (almost $ 89 million) as a reward from Nissan, while he declared for taxes about half that.
The United States decided to extradite Ghosn's accomplices to Japan, thanks to whom he escaped from arrest
