“It’s never nice to be targeted” by an international arrest warrant, reacted on Friday April 22 on franceinfo the lawyer of Carlos Ghosn, Jean Tamalet, after the issuance of an international arrest warrant by the French justice against his client, within the framework of an investigation for misuse of corporate assets, money laundering and corruption. He recognizes that it is “a measure that attacks the reputation” but ensures “that it will probably be misinterpreted by a large part of the public”.

Indeed, according to Jean Tamalet, “there is absolutely nothing new” concerning the suspicions of misuse of corporate assets, money laundering and corruption of which the former boss of the Renault Nissan alliance, who currently lives in Lebanon, is the subject. “We are in an arrest warrant which is a technical mechanism to refer the file to the criminal court before which my client will be able to defend himself. That does not mean that France will ask for the concrete arrest or the extradition of Carlos Ghosn.”

“We are ready and we will fight back” in the event of a trial, warns Master Tamalet. “Carlos Ghosn is combative and does not want a dismissal. He wants us to go and fight in court and respond point by point to the accusations which, for some, are totally false. There are accusations very evasive which were transmitted to the French authorities by the Japanese authorities, who themselves received them from spooks and Nissan lawyers on the basis of interpretations drawn from elements stolen in Beirut.

Jean Tamalet therefore promises “some answers” at an upcoming trial “since there is clearly a desire from Nanterre to hold a trial”. On the other hand, he deplores the way he and his client Carlos Ghosn learned the news. “The least of elegance would have been to inform us lawyers or at least to notify the main interested party rather than announcing it in the Wall Street Journal. It may be fashion, communication, or consulting. “