INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightGetty ImagesFormer Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn has maintained his innocence in his first court appearance since his shock
arrest in Japan last year.He has been in custody since November and faces allegations of financial misconduct
In a prepared statement, Mr Ghosn said he had been "wrongly accused and unfairly detained"
His lawyers requested the court hearing to address the reasons for his lengthy detention
Japanese prosecutors have charged Mr Ghosn with financial misconduct and accuse him of under-reporting his pay package
Mr Ghosn, a towering figure of the auto industry, appeared at the Tokyo District court wearing a dark suit and looking visibly thinner
"I have been wrongly accused and unfairly detained based on meritless and unsubstantiated accusations," his prepared statement read
The 64-year-old said he never received any compensation from Nissan that was not disclosed
Mr Ghosn said he had "never been accused of any wrongdoing," and had dedicated two decades to "reviving Nissan"
Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption
An artist's sketch of Carlos Ghosn in a Tokyo court on Tuesday
His initial arrest nearly two months ago shocked the industry and his lengthy detention has drawn some criticism.But a judge in the Tokyo
District Court on Tuesday said Mr Ghosn's detention was justified as he posed a flight risk and due to the risk of evidence tampering,
according to reports.What are the accusations The architect of the Renault-Nissan alliance has been accused of "significant acts of
misconduct", including under-reporting his pay package and personal use of company assets.He was arrested on 19 November, then re-arrested
twice on different charges.His defence team say the accusations against him are invalid because they do not relate to his salary, but to
future payments that he was expected to receive after retirement.Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption
Members of
Carlos Ghosn's legal team ahead of his appearance at the Tokyo District court
Experts do not expect much to come out of
Tuesday's hearing."After the hearing, his lawyers will likely request to cancel his detention
But there's no chance it'll get approved," Yoji Ochiai, a lawyer and former prosecutor in Tokyo said."With this kind of case, there's no way
a court would approve to cancel his detention."Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption
A crowd of reporters waited
outside the court in Tokyo on Tuesday
If found guilty of the financial misconduct charges, Mr Ghosn faces up to 10 years in
prison as well as a fine of up to 700m Japanese yen ($6.4m; £5m), according to Japanese regulators.Who is Carlos Ghosn His hero status was
so big that his life was serialised in one of Japan's famous cartoon comic booksThe Brazilian-born boss of Lebanese descent and a French
citizen says his background left him with a feeling of being different, which helped him adapt to new culturesIn France he was known as Le
Cost Killer, a comment on the deep cuts he made to revive RenaultHe was once tipped as a potential president of Lebanon, a move he
eventually dismissed because he already had "too many jobs"In a 2011 poll of people the Japanese would like to run their country Mr Ghosn
came seventh, in front of Barack Obama (ninth)Carlos Ghosn: The relentless 'cost killer'
