Tokyo court rejects request to extend former Nissan chair’s detention

A Tokyo court has decided not to allow an extension on the detention of former Nissan chair Carlos Ghosn, meaning he may soon be released from prison.

The Tokyo District Court said in a statement early this morning that it has also ruled against an extension for former Nissan executive Greg Kelly, who was arrested alongside Ghosn last month.

Ghosn was indicted by Japanese authorities on 19 November for allegedly understating his income between 2010 and 2015. He was then re-arrested on 10 December for the same crime, covering the past three years. The detention period was scheduled to expire today.

The court had been expected to extend the detention, as granting bail to suspects who plead innocent is not customary in Japanese law. Shin Kukimoto, the deputy prosecutor at the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, told Reuters that his office will respond "appropriately" to the move.

Japanese public broadcaster NHK said Ghosn could be released from prison either today or on Friday, if any appeals launched by the prosecution are rejected by the court and bail is granted.

It is not known at what amount bail could be set. In 2006, an activist fund manager arrested for insider trading paid an initial 500m yen (£3.6m) bail for his release.

It was revealed yesterday that bosses at Renault and Nissan planned to pay part of Carlos Ghosn’s salary through Dutch holding company Renault-Nissan BV (RNBV), according to documents seen by Reuters.

It was said that Renault-Nissan bosses developed plans to pay bonuses worth millions of euros to Ghosn and other alliance executives out of the public eye via the company last year. 

The scandal of Ghosn and Kelly's arrests has rocked the foundations of the alliance between Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi.

Nissan would not comment on matters outside of the company's own investigations.