Turkish pilots and airline staff to stand trial over Ghosn escape

MNG Jet staff employees charged with illegal migrant smuggling

Mr Ghosn is in Lebanon after fleeing financial misconduct charges in Japan.EPA

A court in Istanbul on Friday accepted an indictment against four pilots, an airline company official and two flight attendants accused of helping former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn escape from Japan to Lebanon via Turkey, and set a trial date for July 3.

Prosecutors are seeking up to eight years in prison each for the four pilots and the airline official, on charges of illegally smuggling a migrant, according to the indictment, cited by the state-run Anadolu Agency. The two flight attendants face a one-year prison term each if convicted of not reporting a crime.

Mr Ghosn, who was arrested over financial misconduct allegations in Tokyo in 2018, skipped bail while awaiting trial in Japan late last year. He flew to Istanbul and was then transferred onto another plane bound for Beirut, where he arrived on December 30.

The Turkish airline company MNG Jet said in January that two of its planes were used illegally in Mr Ghosn’s escape, first flying him from Osaka, Japan, to Istanbul, and then on to Beirut. The company said its employee had admitted to falsifying flight records so that Mr Ghosn’s name did not appear on them.

The indictment states that Mr Ghosn is believed to have been smuggled inside a “foam-covered music box” large enough to carry a person 1.7 metres tall, the private DHA news agency reported. It notes a €216,000 (Dh858,000) and $66,000 increase in the airline official’s bank accounts between October 16 and December 26, 2019.

The four pilots and the two flight attendants have denied involvement in the plans to smuggle Mr Ghosn. They also denied knowing that the former Nissan chief was aboard the flights, DHA reported.

The company employee and four pilots remain in custody while the flight attendants were released after questioning.