TOKYO - Nissan said on Tuesday that former Chairman Carlos Ghosn's flight from Japan would not affect its policy of holding him responsible for "serious misconduct", renewing its charges against him a day before he was due to speak publicly.
The fact that the 65-year-old fled before facing trial in Japan on financial misconduct charges was "extremely regrettable," Nissan said in a statement.
Ghosn became an international fugitive after he revealed last week he had fled to Lebanon to escape what he called a "rigged" justice system in Japan, where he faces charges relating to alleged financial crimes.
The former Nissan and Renault SA chairman has denied all charges against him and said he was the victim of "backstabbing" and a "conspiracy" that wanted to derail his efforts to bring the two carmakers towards a merger.
"The company will continue to take appropriate legal action to hold Ghosn accountable for the harm that his misconduct has caused to Nissan," the Japanese carmaker said in a statement.
Ghosn is due to speak to the media in Lebanon on Wednesday, and he is widely expected to detail some of the claims he has made against Nissan since his arrest in November 2018.
Separately, a Japanese government spokesman on Tuesday said Tokyo has sought cooperation from Lebanon regarding Ghosn.
How Ghosn escaped
Ghosn was helped by two Americans to escape Japan, according to local media reports.
Ghosn left his home in Tokyo alone on the afternoon of December 29 and walked about 800 metres to a hotel, where he met the two Americans, broadcaster NHK reported, citing unnamed investigative sources.
The two flew into Kansai International Airport in Osaka in the morning on a private jet from Dubai, checked in at a hotel nearby with a large box and boarded a bullet train from Shin-Osaka station to Shinagawa station in Tokyo, NHK said.
Ghosn and the two then took a crowded bullet train from Shinagawa to Shin-Osaka and arrived at the hotel after 8 pm (1100 GMT), the broadcaster said.
Two hours later, the two left the hotel with two large boxes, while Ghosn was not to be seen, the report said.
The two oversized containers, declared as music-related cases, did not undergo X-ray checks. Customs officials did not open them either. The jet bound for Turkey took off around 11:10 pm, local media reported.
Japanese authorities believe Ghosn hid inside one of the two boxes, the reports said.