Re, Ghosn... as a reminder. It's possible for a person...
1) To have done a tremendous amount of good (re: electrification)
2) To have been subjected to an unfair, abusive criminal justice system
3) To have had the charges dug up for "political" reasons by opponents within Nissan
...
4) ... and to still be guilty as sin concerning the charges at hand.
The whole situation concerning Ghosn is dirty and ugly. But that doesn't mean he's actually innocent of the charges.
As a reminder of what the charges actually are:
Carlos Ghosn: the charges against him - France 24
The charges are trumped up charges and the only reason they were applied was for political purposes. Even if they are true, like Ghosn pointed out, they are being vindictive making him wait 5 years for a trial, not seeing his wife, solitary confinement, no lawyer access, no access to evidence against him and many other things. From his description of his incarceration is sounds like Guantanamo Bay. They were trying to force a confession by pressuring him, rather than seeing the truth. The whole story is not about what minor infringements Ghosn may or may not have committed are, it is about:
1) political persecution and backstabbing by Nissan over the merger
2) how horrendous the Japanese justice system is
Of course you can make it about the charges, but they you are just buying into the false narrative...
Perhaps he is guilty of some misconduct, perhaps not, we will never know for sure because of how *sugar* the Japanese justice system is. Although, during his presentation he had a lot of documents to support his position which he released to the press, so now that we can hear his side of the story, I think the Nissan execs and Japanese prosecutors must be feeling pretty awkward right now. He actually refuted the charges pretty well in his presentation, enough for me to think he was being framed. It's a pity he didn't want to name names inside the Japanese government who were part of the conspiracy against him, only the Nissan execs.
So to imply he is ''guilty as sin" (or at least might be) is the same as the Japanese system of guilty until proven innocent.
It reminds me of the whole debate about Snowden or other whistleblowers where the disinformation campaign was all about shifting the debate to Snowden, and away from the criminal activity the US gov was doing by spying on everyone. Better to focus on what they are trying to shift the attention from which is how Nissan sabotaged the merger by using the corrupt Japanese legal system to overthrow Ghosn, and Nissan is now performing badly.
