Michael Taylor and his son Peter have both been arrested and jailed by American authorities for allegedly helping beleaguered Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn escape from Japan while he was on bail.
But Taylor's lawyer argues that the United States is honoring Japan's extradition request when they haven't even charged him with a crime.
Ghosn had been brokering a merger between Nissan and Renault, one which was legal under Japanese law, but later deemed illegal by authorities as it upset Japanese nationalistic sensibilities, Taylor told Connecting Vets in a previous interview.
Ghosn was placed on house arrest in Japan pending legal action. Taylor allegedly smuggled Ghosn out of the country by packing him into a black music equipment case with air holes drilled into it and loading him onto a private jet bound for Istanbul where they then switched planes and flew on to Ghosn's home country of Lebanon.
Skipping out on bail like Ghosn did is not a crime in Japan. Current Japanese laws apply to escape from prison but not from house arrest or skipping out on bond, an expert retained by Taylor's lawyer has argued in a legal document that Connecting Vets examined.
William B. Clearly, a published expert on the Japanese legal system writes in a court filing intended to halt the pending extradition of the Taylors to Japan, that Japanese authorities have merely issued an arrest warrant which in that country is an investigative tool that does not charge a person with a crime. Rather, an indictment must be filed to charge someone with a crime in Japan.
"As I understand it, no indictment has been issued against the Taylors. As a result, under the Japanese legal system, the Taylors have not yet been charged with any offenses and are not yet even referred to res 'defendants' in the Japanese system," Clearly writes.
Clearly then looks at the translation of several words in Japanese law, pointing out that there are laws against breaking out of prison or assisting those who do, but those laws would not apply in regards to what the Taylors are alleged to have participated in.
An additional filing from Dr. M. Anthony Casolaro argues that it is dangerous to keep Michael Taylor locked up during the COVID-19 pandemic due to him having had a portion of his lung removed during a partial lobectomy, placing him at higher risk of getting sick.
On a petition on Change.org, the Taylor family recently wrote an update stating, "Michael and Peter have been locked up 9 weeks now, even though there are officially NO charging documents in Japan, they were DENIED bail TWICE."