US Army Special Forces veteran Michael Taylor has told a Tokyo court he regrets helping Carlos Ghosn flee Japan and said the former Nissan Motor Co Ltd chairman should have stayed to face trial for alleged financial misconduct.
Flanked by two guards, Taylor, who was on Tuesday brought handcuffed into court with his son Peter, bowed deeply to the three judges that will decide their sentence, asking that they allow him to return to the United States to see his disabled father.
“I deeply regret my actions and sincerely apologise for causing difficulties for the judicial system and for the Japanese people,” he said in a quavering voice.
Taylor replied yes when the prosecutor asked whether he believed Ghosn should have stayed in Japan.
The two men this month pleaded guilty to charges that, in December 2019, they illegally helped Ghosn escape from western Japan’s Kansai airport hidden in a box on board a private jet to Lebanon.
Extradited to Japan from the US in March, they are being imprisoned at the same jail in Tokyo where Ghosn had been held, and face up to three years in prison.
Prosecutors said the Taylors received $1.3m for their services and another $500,000 for legal fees.
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