(Washington) On Saturday, the US Supreme Court lifted the latest obstacle to the extradition of two Americans to Japan accused of helping Carlos Ghosn, the former Renault-Nissan boss, flee from Tokyo to Lebanon in December 2019.
Supreme Court Judge Stephen Breyer, in a brief ruling, rejected the appeal by Michael Taylor and his son Peter Taylor to halt the decision of a US federal judge, paving the way for their extradition.
The latter, Indira Talwani, considered in January that the arguments presented by Michael and Peter Taylor, according to which they risked being subjected to conditions close to torture in Japanese jails, were not sufficient to derogate from the treaty. Extradition between Tokyo and Washington.
She also stressed that the actions they are accused of constitute a crime in both the United States and Japan.
This court ruling was confirmed on appeal last Thursday.
The two men were arrested in May 2020 after Tokyo issued an arrest warrant for them.
Japan accuses Michael and Peter Taylor, as well as Lebanese George Antoine Zeke, of helping Carlos Ghosn escape justice by fleeing the country on December 29, 2019.
Peter Taylor was arrested in Boston while trying to flee the United States to Lebanon, where the former Renault-Nissan boss has taken refuge, and where there is no extradition treaty with Japan.
With his father, Michael, a former member of the US Special Forces who has been transferred to private security, they are both currently detained, as they represent a “high escape risk”.
According to US court documents, the three men allegedly helped Carlos Ghosn hide in a large box that looked like a box of musical instruments, then boarded a private plane, and the control bag was not mandatory for this type of device at the time.