TOKYO, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- Former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn's defense team on Tuesday blasted Japan's prosecution procedures while maintaining their client's determination to fight the allegations against him, with their comments coming a year after his arrest last November.
Ghosn's global defense team said in a statement that their client was "subjected to a host of questionable practices during more than 100 days of detention prior to his release on bail."
"None of this has weakened his resolve" and he is "determined to fight these meritless allegations vigorously," the statement said, adding, "He is looking forward to the opportunity to set the record straight and reunite with his family."
His team said that the ex-auto tycoon was "ambushed" in his first arrest at Tokyo's Haneda airport on Nov. 19 last year.
They went on to denounce Japan's "hostage system of justice" under which Ghosn was held by prosecutors and was "detained in solitary confinement for more than four months" and "interrogated relentlessly for hours each day."
"Japanese authorities imposed punitive, inhumane and unjustified bail conditions that prohibit him from seeing or speaking with his wife and curtail his ability to mount an effective defense to the charges brought against him," Ghosn's global defense team also said.
Ghosn, whose trial is expected to start in April next year, is accused of under-reporting his remuneration for the eight-year period through March 2018.
He is also accused of transferring losses of 1.85 billion yen (17 million U.S. dollars) to a Nissan account and paying 14.7 million U.S. dollars in company funds to a Saudi businessman who extended Ghosn a credit line.
Ghosn is also charged with having a Nissan subsidiary in the United Arab Emirates pay a total of 10 million U.S. dollars to a distributor in Oman and having 5 million U.S. dollars of the amount transferred to a savings account at a Lebanese investment firm that he ostensibly owned.
