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The Tokyo District Court will forfeit the 1.5-billion-yen (14 million U.S. dollars) bail money posted by former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn, who fled Japan while awaiting trial for financial misconduct in violation of his bail conditions, officials said Tuesday.
According to officials, the decision by the court was made after prosecutors requested the ex-auto tycoon's bail be revoked, with the landmark sum being redirected to the government.
Ghosn, who fled Japan to Lebanon on Dec. 29 in breach of his bail conditions and under dramatic circumstances, has also led to Japan setting about tightening restrictions on luggage checks for private jets departing the country.
On Tuesday, transport minister Kazuyoshi Akaba said that jets carrying large luggage will be required to undergo more stringent inspections.
"We will ensure safe operations by strengthening inspections," Akaba told a press conference on the matter.
On Monday, more stringent mandatory luggage inspections came into effect at airports across Japan, including at Haneda, Narita, Chubu and Kansai airports.
Akaba has called for other regional airports to follow suit, with the aim being for the inspections of luggage being carried by private jets to be as rigid as those for commercial aircraft, which is currently not the case.
Justice Minister Masako Mori also said Tuesday that laws pertaining to the inspections will be amended forthwith, with the ministry seeking to expand criminal sanctions to include individuals jumping bail.
Ghosn, who holds Brazilian, French and Lebanese nationality, is believed to have left from Kansai International Airport in Osaka on a private jet on Dec. 29, traveling to Lebanon via Turkey.
Sources close to the matter have said that immigration here have no record of Ghosn leaving Japan, while the the Tokyo District Court said there have been no changes made to his bail conditions and he remains banned from traveling abroad.
Local media here, citing a Lebanese media outlet, said the former auto bigwig may have hid in a box that was designed to carry musical equipment and departed from Japan undetected from a regional airport.
It has been reported that he managed to flee Japan with the assistance of a security company and was in possession of a French passport.
Meanwhile, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Japan will seek cooperation from Lebanon to try to better understand Ghosn's dramatic escape.
Japan's top government spokesman said it was "extremely regrettable that Ghosn had left Japan illegally."
He added that Japan and Lebanon had been in talks over the matter.
