A Bundle Of English Reports, News and Editorials For January 02/2020 Addressing the On Going Mass Demonstrations & Sit In-ins In Iranian Occupied Lebanon in its 77th Day

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A Bundle Of English Reports, News and Editorials For January 01-02/2020 Addressing the On Going Mass Demonstrations & Sit In-ins In Iranian Occupied Lebanon in its 77th Day
Compiled By: Elias Bejjani
January 02/2020

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on January01- 02/2020
Love Unites Not Enmity/Elias Bejjani/January 01/2020
The accused is innocent until proven guilty/Elias Bejjani/January 01/2020
Resolutions For the new year of 2020/Elias Bejjani/January 01/2020
Contracts of Cellular Companies Not Extended
Trump to Have ‘Lebanese Son-in Law’
Serhan transmits judicial cooperation request on bank transfers to Swiss authorities
Rahi heads New Year’s mass in Bkirki
Lebanese Foreign Ministry: Circumstances of Ghosn’s departure from Japan and his arrival in Beirut are unknown
Sectarian Obstacles Hinder Formation of New Govt.
By Jumping Bail, Fugitive Ghosn Burns Bridges to Japan
Japan Media Blasts ‘Cowardly’ Ghosn after Escape
Ghosn met Lebanese president after fleeing Japan, say sources
What’s Next for Carlos Ghosn?
Carlos Ghosn is now free to speak; what will he say?/Brian Bremner and Young-Sam Cho/Bloomberg/January 01/2019
Lebanon’s justice minister tells Arab News Japan no extradition request received for Ghosn/Najia Houssari/January 01/2020
A daring escape: Ex-Nissan chief flees Japan ahead of trial/Associated Press/January 01/2020
End of the party: why Lebanon’s debt crisis has left it vulnerable/The Financial Times/January 01/2020
What protests in Lebanon can tell us about inequality worldwide/Mona Fawaz/Al Jazeera/January 01/2020

Details Of The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News published on January 01-02/2020
Love Unites Not Enmity
Elias Bejjani/January 01/2020
Hizbullah, which is mere hostility and hatred, is striving to unite the Lebanese by force on the principle of enmity, while there is neither unity nor unification except on the basis of love.

The accused is innocent until proven guilty
Elias Bejjani/January 01/2020
Carlos Ghosn is accused, not convicted yet. His case is so complicated and intertwined with international political conflicts. Have mercy on the man and stop stoning him The accused is innocent until proven guilty

Resolutions For the new year of 2020
Elias Bejjani/January 01/2020
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/81879/elias-bejjani-resolutions-for-the-new-year-of-2020/
How healthy and fruitful would it be if each and every one of us is fully ready to welcome the new year of 2010 with a clear conscience and a joyful reconciliation with himself/herself, as well and with all others, especially those who are the beloved ones, e.g, parents, family members, friends, etc.
How self gratifying would be for any faithful and wise person to enter the new year of 2020 and he/she is completely free from all past heavy and worrying loads of hostility, hatred, enmities, grudges, strives and jealousy.
And because our life is very short on this mortal-perishable earthly world.
And due to fact that, Our Heavenly Father, Almighty God may at any moment take back His Gift of life from any one of us.
Because of all these solid facts and realities, we are ought to leave behind all the 2019 hardships, pains and disappointments with no regrets at all.
We are ought to happily welcome and enter the 2020 new year with a totally empty page of our lives….ready for a new start.
Hopefully, every wise, loving, caring and faithful person would feel better in striving to begin this new year of 2020 with love, forgiveness, faith, hope, extended hands, open heart, and self-confidence.
Happy, Happy new Year

Contracts of Cellular Companies Not Extended
Naharnet/January 01/2020
Caretaker Minister of Finance, Ali Hassan Khalil, on Tuesday said that he had refused the extension of Lebanon’s state-owned operating cell phone companies’ mandate shortly before the Media and Communications Parliamentary Committee convened and rejected the extension.
“Someone has ignorantly or deliberately spread a rumor saying that the Minister of Finance has inked a mandate extension decree for cell phone companies,” Khalil said in a tweet. “The news fabricated and unfounded and the entire idea of extension has been originally rejected by me,” he added. The Media and Communications Committee announced that contracts of the two Lebanese cellular companies Alpha and Touch had not been extended. Groups of protesters have gathered outside the Parliament in line with the meeting in an attempt to voice objection against the extension.

Trump to Have ‘Lebanese Son-in Law’
Naharnet/January 01/2020
A young man of Lebanese descent will get engaged to U.S. President Donald Trump’s daughter Tiffany on January 11, according to invitations sent out by their two families. “The story of Michael Charbel Boulos and Tiffany Donald Trump started in the summer of 2018, as they were vacationing on the Mykonos Island in Greece,” Lebanon’s MTV reported. Tiffany, 26, is Trump’s daughter from his former marriage to Marla Maples. She is the youngest among his daughters. Boulos, 25, grew up in Nigeria, where his family owns a multibillion-dollar company that trades in vehicles, equipment, retail and construction.
According to media reports, Boulos’ father owns the conglomerate SCOA Nigeria PLC, which has its hand in almost every major industry in Nigeria, including automobile, construction, agriculture, food and drink and infrastructure, according to its stock profile. Boulos recently attended the White House Christmas party with his parents Massad and Sarah Boulos. On Tuesday, the young man and Tiffany Trump celebrated New Year’s Eve at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. According to MTV, Boulos likely has four citizenships, including the American. The engagement party will be held in Florida on January 11 amid “strict security measures,” MTV reported.

Serhan transmits judicial cooperation request on bank transfers to Swiss authorities
NNA/January 01/2020
Caretaker Minister of Justice Albert Serhan’s media bureau, announced that the Minister “transmitted to the Swiss judicial authorities, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, the letter of the Prosecutor General, Ghassan Oweidat, on the subject of requesting judicial assistance regarding information about transferring funds from Lebanon to bank accounts in Switzerland” .The statement stressed that “the Lebanese authorities have pledged to maintain the confidentiality of the investigation and to refrain from using the information provided by the Swiss judicial authorities except for the purposes of this investigation.”The statement concluded that the request for legal aid also included reporting “the total amount of the funds transferred, with reference to their source, and whether they are considered to be suspicious or not.”

Rahi heads New Year’s mass in Bkirki
NNA/January 01/2020
Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Beshara Boutros Rahi, reiterated Wednesday during New Year’s message the need to “form a mini-government of non-partisan ministers who would be capable of implementing a financial, economic, social and administrative reform program for the sake of the country.” Rahi urged politicians to make necessary reforms and development at the economic, financial and social levels, away from political disputes. “Lebanese officials must show responsibility in carrying out the necessary reforms in public sector and reduce the deficit away from the political sectarian interference,” he added. The prelate concluded his words by saying, “The approach to quotas in political action must be changed.”

Lebanese Foreign Ministry: Circumstances of Ghosn’s departure from Japan and his arrival in Beirut are unknown
NNA/January 01/2020
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants said in a statement Tuesday that Mr. Carlos Ghosn has entered Lebanon legally at dawn yesterday, as confirmed by the Lebanese General Security. The Ministry said that the circumstances of Ghosn’s departure from Japan and his arrival in Beirut were unknown. The statement indicated that the Ministry has sent several correspondences to the Japanese government regarding Ghosn over the past year, but remained unanswered. The Ministry also noted that Lebanon does not have judicial cooperation agreement with Japan. The Foreign Ministry underlined Lebanon’s keenness on best relations with the Japanese state.

Sectarian Obstacles Hinder Formation of New Govt.
Naharnet/January 01/2020
Disagreements over the representation of the various sects are still hindering the formation of Hassan Diab’s government, media reports said.
“A Druze obstacle emerged yesterday after (Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid) Jumblat and other (Druze) officials criticized that they will be represented through the nonessential environment portfolio,” An-Nahar newspaper reported on Sunday. “Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has insisted that the (only) Druze minister (in the 18-seat government) should be affiliated with his ally, MP Talal Arslan,” the daily added. Bassil fears that a Druze minister close to Jumblat might resign later, stripping the government of its Druze component and consequently of its conformity with the 1943 National Pact, an unwritten agreement that set the foundations of modern Lebanon as a multi-confessional state.
“The candidate who has been proposed for the ministerial post is the physician Ramzi Msharrafiyeh,” An-Nahar quoted political sources informed on the formation process as saying.
Diab has meanwhile been unable to find Sunni candidates who hail from the capital Beirut. “An indirect contact took place between the PM-designate and Dr. Halima Qaaqour, an activist from the Watani coalition, with the aim of allotting the education portfolio to her,” the sources said.
“She inquired about the government’s program and plan, but it turned out that she was not eager to take part in the government and will likely refuse,” the sources added. Dr. Tarek Mohammed al-Majzoub, who hails from Sidon, is meanwhile being considered for the portfolio.
“Othman Sultan, who hails from Tripoli and is not known in the political arena, has been proposed for the telecom portfolio,” An-Nahar said.
The interior portfolio is meanwhile one of the main obstacles that are delaying the formation of the government. The chances of two retired officers – Bassem Khaled and Hosni Daher – have decreased, the daily added. The parties are meanwhile seriously considering retired Brig. Gen. Mohammed Fahmi for the post. Retired officers are also being mulled to occupy the defense portfolio after Shadi Masaad was “totally excluded.”
The sources also noted that the Shiite parties – Hizbullah and AMAL – are insisting on renominating Jamil Jabaq and Hasan al-Laqqis should Bassil cling to returning Nada Bustani and Mansour Bteish to the government. The sources also revealed that the government’s line-up was supposed to be announced on Monday, prior to the meeting of the Sunni Islamic Council scheduled for next Saturday, noting that Bassil “obstructed the announcement and preferred to wait, pending the resolution of the remaining obstacles.”

By Jumping Bail, Fugitive Ghosn Burns Bridges to Japan
Associated Press/Naharnet/January 01/2020
By jumping bail, former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn, who had long insisted on his innocence, has now committed a clear offense and can never return to Japan without going to jail. “So he now has burned his bridges to Japan,” Stephen Givens, a lawyer and expert on Japan’s legal and corporate systems, said Wednesday. “This is going to end in basically a stalemate with him spending the rest of his life in Lebanon.”How exactly Ghosn fled surveillance in Japan and popped up in Lebanon, or who might have directed the dramatic escape, remains unclear. The Tokyo District Court revoked his bail, Japanese media reports said, meaning authorities would seize the 1.5 billion yen ($14 million) Ghosn had posted on two separate instances to get out of detention. Ghosn was first arrested in November 2018, released and then rearrested. The court was closed for the New Year’s holidays and could not be immediately reached for comment.
Ghosn had been out on bail while awaiting trial on various financial misconduct allegations. The trial was expected to start in April. The date had not been set. How the Japanese authorities might investigate Ghosn’s escape and what action they might take on the apparent security lapses remains unclear.
Ghosn, who is of Lebanese origin and holds French, Lebanese and Brazilian passports, disclosed his location in a statement through his representatives but did not say how he managed to flee Japan. He promised to talk to reporters next week. He said he wanted to avoid “injustice and political persecution.”
“I am now in Lebanon and will no longer be held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system where guilt is presumed, discrimination is rampant, and basic human rights are denied, in flagrant disregard of Japan’s legal obligations under international law and treaties it is bound to uphold,” the statement said.
His lawyer Junichiro Hironaka denied all knowledge of the escape, saying he was stunned. He said he didn’t expect Ghosn to return to Japan. When asked if Ghosn had taken any of the documents being prepared for the trial, Hironaka acknowledged he hadn’t checked but said he seriously doubted Ghosn would care about a trial he had taken such pains to avoid. Japanese media reports said Wednesday there were no official records of Ghosn’s departure from the country, but a private jet had left from a regional airport to Turkey. One report said he sneaked out from his Tokyo home hiding in a case for a musical instrument. Lebanon’s caretaker minister for presidential affairs, Salim Jreissati, told the An-Nahar newspaper that Ghosn entered legally at the airport with a French passport and Lebanese ID. France has reacted with surprise and confusion, denying any knowledge. Speculation is rife that a foreign or Japanese government, or both, might have been involved, or maybe just looked the other way to allow the escape to rid the public of a potentially embarrassing trial. With him missing, Ghosn’s trial is suspended.
But a trial is still pending against Nissan as a company and Greg Kelly, another Nissan executive. Kelly, an American, has said he is innocent. Kelly’s allegations overlap with those charges against Ghosn related to the underreporting of Ghosn’s future compensation. Those charges are less serious than the additional breach of trust accusations against Ghosn. Ghosn has been charged with breach of trust in having Nissan shoulder his personal investment losses, and diverting payments in Saudi Arabia and Oman for personal gain. He has repeatedly asserted his innocence, saying authorities trumped up the charges to prevent a fuller merger between Nissan and alliance partner Renault SA.

Japan Media Blasts ‘Cowardly’ Ghosn after Escape
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January 01/2020
The usually staid Japanese media lambasted the “cowardly” Carlos Ghosn on Wednesday, after the tycoon jumped bail and fled to Lebanon to avoid trial in Japan. “Running away is a cowardly act that mocks Japan’s justice system,” said the Yomiuri Shimbun, with Ghosn facing multiple charges of financial misconduct — all of which he denies. By leaving the country, Ghosn has “lost the opportunity to prove his innocence and vindicate his honor,” the paper added, noting that the court, his defense lawyers and immigration control officials also bore some blame in the affair.
The liberal Tokyo Shimbun also said Ghosn’s actions had made a mockery of the Japanese justice system. “The defendant Ghosn insists he escaped political persecution… but traveling abroad without permission is against the conditions of his bail, and mocks the Japanese justice system,” the paper wrote.”There is a high probability that the trial will not be held, and his argument that he wants to prove his innocence is now in question.”Some media noted that the decision to give him bail — seen by some as unusual at the time — now looks unwise. Prosecutors had argued at the time that he was a flight risk with powerful connections, but Ghosn himself had said he wanted to be tried to prove his innocence. One of his defense lawyers at the time has said he was such a famous face that there was no chance he would be able to slip away undetected. The conservative Sankei Shimbun noted that prosecutors believed the court had yielded to “foreign pressure” by offering him bail, amid widespread criticism in the global media of Japan’s “hostage justice system” that allows for lengthy and repeated detention. In December 2018, the court declined prosecutors’ request to extend Ghosn’s detention by 10 days — a surprising decision as the extension is usually almost automatic. And in fact Ghosn was bailed twice, once in March and a second time after he was re-arrested in April. “All of these were rare decisions,” said the Sankei. The center-left Mainichi Shimbun quoted a senior prosecutor as saying: “This is what we predicted.” “This has ruined the prosecutors’ painstaking work” of collecting evidence in Japan and abroad against him.The Asahi Shimbun also quoted a former Nissan executive voicing his disappointment at Ghosn’s actions. “The entrepreneur who ran Nissan for so many years and was well-known internationally turns out to be this kind of person. My jaw hit the floor. I can’t find the words to express myself.”

Ghosn met Lebanese president after fleeing Japan, say sources
Reuters/Al Jazeera/January 01/2020
Ghosn was greeted warmly by President Michel Aoun on Monday after flying into Beirut via Istanbul, sources tell Reuters.
Fugitive former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn met Lebanon’s president after escaping from Japan, where he was smuggled out of house arrest by a private security company, two sources close to Ghosn said on Wednesday. One of the sources said that Ghosn was greeted warmly by President Michel Aoun on Monday after flying into Beirut via Istanbul – and that he was now in a buoyant and combative mood and feeling secure. In his meeting with the president, Ghosn thanked Aoun for the support he had given him and his wife Carole while he was in detention, the sources said. He now needs the protection and security of his government after fleeing Japan, they added. A media adviser to the president’s office denied the two men had met. Lebanese officials have said there would be no need to take legal measures against Ghosn because he entered the country legally on a French passport, although Ghosn’s French, Lebanese and Brazilian passports are with lawyers in Japan. The French and Lebanese foreign ministries have said they were unaware of the circumstances of his journey. Lebanon has no extradition agreement with Japan, where Ghosn faced trial on charges of financial misconduct, which he denied. Under the terms of his bail, he had been confined to his house in Tokyo and had to have cameras installed at the entrance. He was prevented from communicating with his wife, and had his use of the internet and other communications curtailed.
The sources said the Lebanese ambassador to Japan had visited him daily while he was in detention.
‘Pure fiction’
While some Lebanese media outlets have floated a Houdini-like account of Ghosn being packed in a wooden container for musical instruments after a private concert in his home, his wife called the account pure fiction when contacted by Reuters News Agency. She declined to provide details of the exit of one of the most recognisable titans of industry. The accounts of the two sources suggest a carefully planned escape of which few people were aware. Sources said a private security firm oversaw the plan, which was three months in the making and involved shuttling Ghosn out via a private jet to Istanbul before pushing onward to Beirut, with even the pilot unaware of Ghosn’s presence on board. “It was a very professional operation from start to finish” said one of the sources. The other source said Ghosn was in good health. In a written statement, Ghosn said after his arrival that he had “escaped injustice and political persecution” and would begin communicating with media next week. Sources close to him said he was unwilling to share details of his escape so as not to jeopardise those who aided him in Japan. He is staying at the home of a relative of his wife, but plans to return soon to a gated villa in the upscale Beirut neighbourhood of Achrafieh, one of the sources said. Ghosn was first arrested in Tokyo in November 2018 and faces four charges – which he denies – including hiding income and enriching himself through payments to dealerships in the Middle East. Nissan sacked him as chairman saying internal investigations revealed misconduct including understating his salary while he was the company’s chief executive, and transferring $5m of Nissan funds to an account in which he had an interest. Ghosn has enjoyed an outpouring of support from Lebanese people since his 2018 arrest, with billboards proclaiming “We are all Carlos Ghosn” erected in the country in solidarity with his case. Locally he is considered a poster boy for success in a country where rampant unemployment pushes young Lebanese abroad to find work and the economy relies heavily on remittances amid a deep financial crisis that has sparked a wave of protests.
Ghosn was born in Brazil but is of Lebanese descent, and lived in Lebanon as a child. He oversaw a turnaround at French carmaker Renault that won him the nickname “Le Cost Killer” and used similar methods to revive Nissan.

What’s Next for Carlos Ghosn?
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/January 01/2020
Former car magnate Carlos Ghosn’s stunning departure from Japan, where he was facing trial on financial misconduct charges, poses numerous questions as to where his story goes next. Venerated French cartoonist Plantu of Le Monde newspaper portrayed the 65-year-old Tuesday with a smile on his face, a party hat on his head and relaxing in a hammock. The look of insouciance contrasted with the consternation in Japan after his arrival in Beirut via Istanbul. Sprung out in music case? The exact circumstances of Ghosn’s daring escape from Japan, where he had been released on bail in April pending trial after 130 days in prison, remain unclear, though colorful rumors abound. One claim in the Lebanese media is that the auto mogul, who holds Lebanese, French and Brazilian nationalities, was sprung from his Tokyo residence in a musical instrument case — a story a source in his entourage denied. A Lebanese presidential source said the former Nissan and Renault boss had landed in Turkey before an early hours onward flight to Lebanon. The stunt left his Japanese lawyer Junichiro Hironaka dumbfounded — Hironaka says the mogul’s three passports remain in Japan. Lebanon’s foreign ministry said Tuesday that Ghosn entered the country legally. The country’s General Security apparatus said that “there are no measures that warrant taking steps against him or prosecuting him.”
Can he be extradited?
“There is no extradition accord between Lebanon and Japan,” a source at the Lebanese ministry of justice told AFP. Though that is the case, one expert in international relations told AFP that “the absence of (an extradition) convention does not in itself preclude extraditing an individual.
“But certain states, Lebanon included, do not extradite their nationals,” the expert added. Former Lebanese justice minister, Ibrahim Najjar, said that if Interpol were to become engaged in the case Ghosn’s name would be communicated to border authorities in member countries with a view to his arrest. “But Interpol cannot have him arrested by force or impose any decision on Lebanon.”The international relations expert noted that a Lebanese court could try Ghosn “if he has committed a crime punishable by Lebanese law” but “Lebanon cannot judge a person accused of tax fraud committed in a foreign country.”
Tokyo trial outlook
Arrested in Tokyo in November 2018, Ghosn, who insists he is fleeing “injustice and political persecution,” faced going on trial in April on four charges including under-reporting salary, allegedly trying to have Nissan cover personal foreign exchange losses and using millions of Nissan funds transferred to a dealership in Oman for his own use. But his departure, which his defense counsel labelled inexcusable, has thrown the process up in the air. “The defense team has totally lost face,” having earlier promised Ghosn would not leave the country, former prosecutor Nobuo Gohara, a lawyer, told AFP. “For the prosecutors it is an extremely serious situation. Nissan must be afraid. And the prosecutors as well.”France also has a legal action against Ghosn opened last April over alleged financial wrongdoing but “his absconding should not have any consequences for our investigation,” French prosecutor Catherine Denis told AFP on Tuesday. What next for Ghosn? Ghosn, now in his Beirut home with his wife according to a family friend, has vowed to communicate “freely” with the media “starting next week” and put his side of an episode which has divided the city where he grew up. Lebanese writer and film director Lucien Bourjeily waxed ironic on Twitter, observing wryly that Ghosn “has come for the comfort and ‘efficiency’ of a Lebanese judicial system which has never put a politician in jail for corruption.”That, in a country where the populace are currently up in arms against a political class they see as venal.

Carlos Ghosn is now free to speak; what will he say?
Brian Bremner and Young-Sam Cho/Bloomberg/January 01/2019
Former Nissan CEO and white collar fugitive is expected to make a blistering public relations assault.
Carlos Ghosn has spent more than a year trapped in a Japanese legal odyssey that’s transfixed the automotive world and thrown his life into chaos. Now, having pulled off a daring escape from Japan to Lebanon, he’s an international fugitive.
But the executive is also free to speak his mind fully, without legal filtering, for the first time since his surprise arrest on the tarmac at Haneda airport back in November 2018. And this much seems likely: The former head of Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA has stories to tell and scores to settle.
At stake is Ghosn’s entire legacy. Will he be remembered as the brilliant, cost-cutting manager who rescued Nissan and built one of mightiest auto alliances in the industry? Or will he be just another name in a hall of infamy of white-collar fugitives?
Ghosn said in his statement from Lebanon on Tuesday that he would “finally communicate freely with the media, and look forward to starting next week.” So get ready for what’s likely to be a blistering public relations assault, starting with an expected press conference, that will rattle some cages in both Japan and France. Based on past statements by Ghosn and his wife Carole, here’s a guide to what may be in store.
Japan’s legal system
“I have not fled justice,” Ghosn said in the first emailed statement after his remarkable exit from Japan. “I have escaped injustice and political persecution.” An even more robust indictment of the nation’s legal system is likely in the weeks ahead.
Ghosn’s arrest revived long-standing concerns about the fairness of Japan’s judicial system, where prosecutors can grill suspects repeatedly without their lawyers present and enjoy an almost 100% conviction rate.
Under the terms of the executive’s bail, the courts restricted contact with his family. In his Dec. 31 statement, Ghosn called the Japanese justice system rigged and said his “basic human rights” had been denied, including the presumption of innocence. Those are issues that he almost certainly would have put on the world stage had his case come to trial.
Unholy trinity
For months, Ghosn’s attorneys have been arguing that all of the charges against their client were bogus, the result of a broad conspiracy among nationalistic Nissan officials, Japanese prosecutors and the government itself.
The goal, according to Ghosn, was to smear him in order to prevent the executive from further integrating Nissan and France’s Renault, a plan that threatened the Japanese carmaker’s autonomy and was vehemently opposed in the highest echelons of Tokyo officialdom.
Corporate assassins
In April, Ghosn was detained before a scheduled tell-all press conference, prompting his camp to release a pre-recorded video for such an eventuality.
In it, Ghosn spoke of several Nissan executives whom he claimed turned on him to advance their own interests. The original video named the people; that segment was edited out in the version released to the public.
“I’m talking here about a few executives who, obviously for their own interests and for their own selfish fears, are creating a lot of value destruction. Names? You know them,” Ghosn hinted in his video. Now, Ghosn may really be ready to disclose names.
Nissan’s slide
In his video, Ghosn also criticized Nissan’s management for the company’s poor performance, saying they lost sight of the need to move the alliance with Renault forward.
“I’m worried because obviously the performance of Nissan is declining, but also I’m worried because I don’t think there is any vision for the alliance being built,” Ghosn said in the video.
Nissan’s earnings have tumbled to the lowest level in a decade and the stock was the worst performer on the Bloomberg World Auto Manufacturers Index last year (the second-worst was Renault), so he may hit that note again.
French establishment
In several interviews, Ghosn’s wife, Carole, lashed out at the French establishment for not doing more to help the former head of Renault, who also is a French citizen.
In an interview with the Journal du Dimanche, she said President Emmanuel Macron hasn’t answered her pleas for help. “The silence from the Elysee Palace is deafening,” she said. “I thought France was a country that defended the presumption of innocence. They’ve all forgotten everything Carlos did for France’s economy and for Renault.” It remains to be seen which talking points Ghosn will hit the hardest. Yet this much is clear: He is a fighter, and he has everything to lose if he can’t pull ahead in the PR war. That suggests his approach won’t be subtle.

Lebanon’s justice minister tells Arab News Japan no extradition request received for Ghosn
Najia Houssari/January 01/2020
BEIRUT: Lebanese Minister of Justice Albert Serhan told Arab News Japan on Wednesday that Japan has not filed an official extradition request for former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, who fled Japan for Lebanon via Turkey on Dec. 30.
Ghosn, a Brazilian-born French businessman of Lebanese ancestry, was arrested in Japan in November 2018 over allegations that he had under-reported his earnings and misused company assets. He was re-arrested under new charges of misappropriation of funds while out on bail in April. Ghosn has broken the terms of his bail by fleeing to Lebanon.
Serhan said: “Ghosn has Lebanese citizenship, and — according to the principles and laws — is thus treated as a Lebanese citizen. According to our applicable laws, a Lebanese man will be tried before Lebanese courts unless there is an extradition treaty, and there is none between Lebanon and Japan. In any case, we will not jump to conclusions. Until now, the Japanese government has not sent any request to have him returned.”
Lebanon accepted an extradition request from the US earlier this year, despite the fact that it has no extradition treaty with America. Ali Salameh, who holds dual Lebanese and American citizenship and was accused of kidnapping his four-year-old son from the United States and taking him to Lebanon following a dispute with his wife over his custody, was handed over the to FBI. However, Serhan stressed: “That man had dual citizenship. Carlos Ghosn does not have Japanese citizenship. Every case is different.”
Asked whether Ghosn fleeing to Lebanon would affect Lebanese-Japanese relations, Serhan said: “We hope (not). If principles are followed and laws are respected, this case cannot affect the relations between the two countries.”
He stressed that Lebanon is keen to maintain good relations with all countries, and that it respects international law. “Lebanon needs Japan, which is one of the largest economies, and it provides us with assistance,” he said. “We hope that Japan understands, especially with regard to Lebanese laws.”
Ghosn is believed to be planning a press conference in Beirut on Jan. 8, saying in a statement on New Year’s Eve, “I can now finally communicate freely with the media and look forward to starting next week.”
Serhan said that Ghosn could hold the press conference but only if he did not damage relations between Lebanon and Japan.
“Ghosn is a Lebanese citizen who enjoys (the same rights as all citizens),” Serhan said. “He may hold his press conference as long as he does not criticize any state and does not affect relations between our two countries.”
The Lebanese Foreign Ministry stressed in a statement that it wishes to maintain “the best relations with the Japanese State,” but added that Ghosn entered Lebanon “in a legal manner.”
The ministry explained that, a year ago, Lebanon sent a number of official communiqués to the Japanese government in relation to Ghosn’s case, but no response was received. During the visit of Japanese State Minister for Foreign Affairs Keisuke Suzuki to Lebanon a few days ago, a complete file on the case was handed to the Lebanese government. During Suzuki’s visit — the first by a Japanese state minister to Lebanon in three years — he said: “Japan believes that peace and stability in Lebanon is of great importance for the entirety of the Middle East and, therefore, Japan is committed to supporting Lebanon.”

A daring escape: Ex-Nissan chief flees Japan ahead of trial
Associated Press/January 01/2020
TOKYO: In a daring escape that confounded authorities, Nissan’s former Chairman Carlos Ghosn skipped bail while awaiting trial in Japan on allegations of financial misconduct and reappeared in Lebanon, where he said Tuesday that he had fled to avoid “political persecution.”
Ghosn, who is of Lebanese origin and holds French, Lebanese and Brazilian passports, disclosed his location in a statement through his representatives but did not say how he managed to get out of Japan, where he had been under surveillance. He promised to talk to reporters next week.
“I am now in Lebanon and will no longer be held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system where guilt is presumed, discrimination is rampant, and basic human rights are denied, in flagrant disregard of Japan’s legal obligations under international law and treaties it is bound to uphold,” the statement said.
Speaking anonymously, prosecutors in Japan told Japanese media they did not know how Ghosn got out. His lawyer also denied all knowledge of the escape, saying he was stunned. Japan does not have an extradition treaty with Lebanon, which said Ghosn had entered the country legally and there was no reason to take any action against him.
“He is home,” Ghosn’s friend, television host Ricardo Karam said in a message. “It’s a big adventure.”
Karam said Ghosn arrived in Lebanon on Monday morning, but declined to elaborate. The Lebanon-based newspaper Al-Joumhouriya said Ghosn arrived in Beirut from Turkey aboard a private jet.
Ghosn was arrested in November 2018 and was expected to face trial in April 2020. He posted 1.5 billion yen ($14 million) bail on two separate instances after he was arrested a second time on additional charges, and released again.
Prosecutors fought his release, but a court granted him bail on condition that he be monitored and not meet with his wife, Carole, who is also of Lebanese origin. Recently, the court allowed them to speak by video.
Ghosn, who was charged with under-reporting his future compensation and breach of trust, has repeatedly asserted his innocence, saying authorities trumped-up charges to prevent a possible fuller merger between Nissan Motor Co. and alliance partner Renault SA.
“Maybe he thought he won’t get a fair trial,” said his lawyer, Junichiro Hironaka, stressing that he continues to believe Ghosn is innocent. “I can’t blame him for thinking that way.”
The charges Ghosn faces carry a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
How Ghosn managed to flee was, publicly at least, a mystery. Hironaka said the lawyers were holding Ghosn’s three passports, yet Lebanon’s minister for presidential affairs, Selim Jreissati, told the An-Nahar newspaper that Ghosn entered legally at the airport with a French passport and Lebanese ID.
France reacted with surprise and some confusion.
The French foreign ministry said in a statement that French authorities “have heard from the press about the arrival of Carlos Ghosn to Lebanon.” They “have not been informed of his departure from Japan and have no knowledge of the circumstances of his departure,” the statement said.
Agnes Pannier-Runacher, a junior finance minister, told broadcaster BFM-TV that “I was surprised as you when I learned about this escape.”
Ghosn’s lawyer, Hironaka, said he last spoke with his client on Christmas Day and was never consulted about leaving for Lebanon. However, he said the circumstances of Ghosn’s arrest, the seizure of evidence and the strict bail conditions were unfair.
Jreissati told An-Naharhe he had asked Japan to hand Ghosn over to be tried in Lebanon according to international anti-corruption laws. However, since there was no official word from Tokyo and it was not yet clear how Ghosn came to Lebanon, Beirut wouldn’t take a formal position. Jreissati did not immediately respond to calls from The Associated Press.
People in Lebanon take special pride in the auto industry icon, who is credited with leading a spectacular turnaround at Nissan beginning in the late 1990s, and rescued the automaker from near-bankruptcy.
Ghosn speaks fluent Arabic and visited the country regularly. Born in Brazil, where his Lebanese grandfather had sought his fortune, Ghosn grew up in Beirut, where he spent part of his childhood at a Jesuit school.
Before his fall from grace, Ghosn was also a celebrity in Japan, where he was revered for his managerial acumen.
Nissan did not have immediate comment Tuesday. The Japanese automaker of the March subcompact, Leaf electric car, and Infiniti luxury models have also been charged as a company in relation to Ghosn’s alleged financial crimes.
Japanese securities regulators recently recommended Nissan be fined 2.4 billion yen ($22 million) over disclosure documents from 2014 to 2017. Nissan has said it accepted the penalty and corrected its securities documents in May.
The company’s sales and profits have tumbled and its brand image is tarnished. It has acknowledged lapses in its governance and has promised to improve its transparency.
Another former Nissan executive, Greg Kelly, an American, was arrested at the same time as Ghosn and is awaiting trial. He has said he is innocent.
Hiroto Saikawa, who replaced Ghosn as head of Nissan, announced his resignation in September after financial misconduct allegations surfaced against him related to his income. He has not been charged with any crime.
The conviction rate in Japan exceeds 99% and winning an acquittal through a lengthy appeals process could take years. Rights activists in Japan and abroad say Japan’s judicial system does not presume innocence enough and relies on long detentions that lead to false confessions.
In addition to under-reporting his future compensation, Ghosn is accused of diverting Nissan money and having it shoulder his personal investment losses. Other allegations against him involve payments to a Saudi dealership, as well as funds paid to an Oman business that were purportedly diverted to entities run by Ghosn. Ghosn has said that the compensation was never decided, that Nissan never suffered losses from the investments and that all the payments were for legitimate business services.
*El Deeb reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Zeina Karam in Beirut, and Sylvie Corbet and John Leicester in Paris contributed.

End of the party: why Lebanon’s debt crisis has left it vulnerable
The Financial Times/January 01/2020
Once known for its resilience, the country’s fragile financial system has triggered angry protests
Chloe Cornish in Beirut
In 2008, as mountains of bad debt collapsed and economies around the world crumbled, carefree gamblers at the central bank-owned Casino du Liban rolled dice and spun roulette wheels. Unscathed by the global financial crisis, Beirut glittered as the Middle East’s party capital and purveyor of discrete financial services.Lebanon offered wealthy investors something they could not get elsewhere — high interest rates for low risk investments. While the rest of the world’s central banks tried to boost post-crisis recovery by holding borrowing costs at 1 per cent or less, the Banque du Liban pushed rates up so high that returns of more than 10 per cent became common for depositors. The central bank paid so much because it badly needed a constant supply of dollars to maintain a currency peg against the US dollar, pay for imports and fund the government. “Lebanon relies on remittances,” Riad Salame, central bank governor, told the FT in 2018.
That reliance on money from overseas left the government vulnerable and sliding ever further into debt, especially as economic growth has been sluggish since the start of the Arab spring in 2011. A bungled October effort at raising funds via a tax on WhatsApp calls triggered Lebanon’s biggest protests in over a decade, adding to the political paralysis and deepening the economic crisis. Now the debt-fuelled crash Beirut avoided in 2008 could have finally arrived. Rating agency Fitch is predicting default on $88bn of Lebanese public borrowing. The country’s apparent powers of resilience, even as it was surrounded by instability, suddenly look more like luck — and Lebanon is in its most precarious position since its civil war ended in 1990.
A harsh economic collapse at the heart of the tumultuous Middle East would hurt Lebanon’s poorest most, at a time when public opinion is already enraged by perceived corruption and cronyism. “It will be very very hard,” says Sibylle Rizk, public policy director at Kulluna Irada, a lobby group, “and the possibility of violence and social unrest is high.”
With its nearly 7m population of Christians and Sunni and Shia Muslims, including over 1m refugees, Lebanon is surrounded by trouble — civil war has raged in next door Syria since 2011 and tensions with neighbouring Israel are continuous. Iran-backed Shia Islamist paramilitary and political party Hizbollah, seen by many Lebanese as a defender against Israel but viewed by Washington as a terrorist group, now forms an integral part of Lebanon’s government, souring relations with Gulf countries that were once Lebanon’s sponsors.
Yet even amid these tensions, Beirut’s high life, yacht-friendly marina and banking secrecy made it a playground for the Middle East’s wealthy.
The central bank borrowed from Lebanese commercial banks, who borrowed from their clients. Lenders “could generate profits at very low risk”, says Nasser Saidi, a former central bank vice-governor. “For each bank it looked like this was paradise.” The banks’ deposits with the central bank grew by over 70 per cent from 2017 to August 2019 to 229trn Lebanese lira.
For some observers, the numbers did not add up. “What could the central bank be investing in to pay those rates?” says Mr Saidi. But as banks paid out dividends to shareholders, many of whom were politicians, Lebanon’s political elites were happy to go along with it. “Everybody got greedy,” shrugs one bank board member.
Meanwhile politicians were spending the country deep into the red, buying votes by expanding public hiring and wasting cash on unsustainable solutions for Lebanon’s chronically malfunctioning electricity sector, while its trade deficit ballooned.
Lebanon’s biggest protests in a decade forced the resignation of prime minister Saad al-Hariri’s government at the end of October. Hassan Diab, a computer sciences professor, appointed prime minister designate, must now corral Lebanon’s multi-confessional political parties — shifting alliances between Christian, Sunni and Shia Muslim factions — into forming a cabinet to steer the country out of crisis.
Amid the growing warnings about a looming default, Mr Hariri had begun to beseech international allies for help and started talks with the IMF. The west has little interest in seeing this crucible of regional tensions explode. The rise of Iran-backed Hizbollah means it can no longer depends on Gulf bailouts.
But while many capitals from Paris to Tehran want influence in the strategic Mediterranean nation, no state has so far offered to foot the bill. Asked whether an aid packaged was on the table, David Schenker, the State Department’s assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs, told the Associated Press: “Lebanon is not being saved from its financial mess.”
Lebanon’s drastic downturn came slowly then suddenly. After months of economic slowdown and a dollar liquidity squeeze, rampant wildfires erupted across the mountains in central Lebanon, unchecked in part because the state had failed to maintain expensive helicopters. Days later, in an austerity measure to curb its deepening fiscal deficit, politicians proposed taxing WhatsApp calls. Lebanon snapped.
Hundreds of thousands have demonstrated since mid-October against political corruption, bad governance, poor infrastructure, and economic unfairness. Beirut’s downtown area, where bank headquarters are concentrated, has been filled with graffiti and tear gas.
This “so called revolution” took the lenders by surprise, says Riad Obegi, chairman and general manager of Banque Bemo, a Lebanese bank. The disruption of the protests “creates lack of confidence,” he adds, which led to a rush of depositors trying to send money abroad. But banks had put half of their assets in the central bank to earn high rates, which meant that honouring the transfer requests would have gutted the country’s reserves.
In October, the country’s banks, which had managed to stay open during Lebanon’s bloody civil war, closed for two weeks. The union of banking workers said it was for safety; economists suspected they were low on dollars and trying to avert a bank run. But by closing, argues Mr Saidi, the banks themselves triggered panic, while their informal capital restrictions generated an “accusation that the big depositors were able to get out”.
When they reopened, guarded by soldiers, clerks told panicked customers they could not send money abroad, nor withdraw large sums in dollars. “We’re all in it together,” bankers told clients — but rumours swirled that the politically connected mega-rich had already got their money out, even as customers could withdraw only $200 per week in cash.
Amid fears about whether their leaders can protect their savings, many Lebanese worry that the government might choose to prioritise foreign creditors, who hold nearly $12bn worth of Lebanon’s debt.
So far the central bank has managed to cover the government’s repayments to its creditors — who are mostly domestic banks. However, multiple downgrades of Lebanon’s sovereign debt in the past few months suggest time could be running out.
Locking down Lebanon’s traditionally open economy with informal capital controls further discourages the all-important inflow of dollars. Indeed, the country had already been witnessing a net capital outflow since January 2018, according to Goldman Sachs research. And it has throttled businesses. According to Infopro Research in Beirut, 160,000 jobs have been lost since the beginning of October and one in 10 companies have closed. Hospitals are strained after losing bank overdrafts which they had used to cover money they are owed by the government.
For years, Lebanese had been assured that their banking sector was safe, and the sense of betrayal is palpable. Protesters have splattered the locked Association of Banks in blood red paint. People spend hours in banks trying to extract their own money to pay rent.
“You see people how shocked they are by the fact that they can’t access their money,” says Ms Rizk. “It’s because they have been simply deceived.”
The foundations of Lebanon’s crisis were laid three decades ago, when 15 years of fratricidal civil war finally came to an end in 1990. Before he became Lebanon’s prime minister in 1992, Rafiq al-Hariri — who was assassinated in 2005 — was a construction tycoon who controlled Lebanese lender BankMed. (Saad al-Hariri, the recently resigned premier, is his son).
To attract investment for postwar reconstruction — and having made his fortune in Saudi Arabia — the billionaire enlisted Gulf petrodollars to invest in Lebanon. And although Lebanon was variously occupied by Israel and Syria until 2005, confidence in Mr Hariri’s vision grew, and money and people returned to Lebanon during the 1990s and early 2000s. Mr Hariri started borrowing from international markets, and his successors did the same.
By 2019 the state was using almost half its revenues to service external and domestic debt — the other half largely went on public wages. Warlords-turned-politicians had bought votes by hiring public sector workers from their constituencies. Meanwhile corruption flourished, as the state ran opaque tenders for government contracts.
Despite all the money which came to Lebanon, says Ms Rizk, “we have no infrastructure, no productive sector. We have nothing. All this money was burnt on consumption . . . through imports and real estate, which is a bubble, and to defend the peg.”
Holding the currency peg had helped to stabilise the economy, but it is not known at what cost — and the potential impact of devaluation will fall most heavily on ordinary Lebanese savers who kept their money in Lebanese pounds. The IMF says the pound is around 50 per cent overvalued.
When asked this month where the exchange rate was going, Mr Salame responded: “no one knows”.
Along with politicians, Mr Salame, once Rafic al-Hariri’s personal banker, has become a figure of fury for the protesters. A banker at Merrill Lynch for two decades he returned to Beirut in 1993 to lead the Banque du Liban — and never left.
As governor, Mr Salame is credited with stabilising an erratic currency by establishing a pegged exchange rate between the US dollar and the Lebanese pound. “His whole legacy, his whole metric of success in his mind and the people’s mind, is the peg,” says Dan Azzi, a Harvard fellow and former top banker with Standard Chartered in Lebanon.
But from 2011, the dollar flow he needed to defend the pound started to ebb as neighbouring oil economies, home to the bulk of Lebanese expatriates remitting dollars back to Beirut, slowed down. War in neighbouring Syria has also increased Lebanon’s vulnerability. The government continued to rack up debt, and imports grew. Mr Salame had to come up with something drastic.
In 2016 he began a succession of unorthodox measures which he called “financial engineering”. Put simply, banks lent their customers’ dollars to the central bank at sky high interest rates in return for buying up swaths of government debt in swap operations — on terms that generated profit for Lebanese banks.
The central bank and Lebanon’s commercial banks’ balance sheets became overlapping. “We say there is one bank in Lebanon with 40 branches,” joked the bank board member. In his interview with the FT, Mr Salame said that all deposits in the central bank — including those of commercial banks — were its legal property.
But by 2016, argues former IMF official and economist Toufic Gaspard, who anticipated the crisis in a 2017 paper, the central bank “became a Ponzi scheme. It was borrowing from banks to pay them their interest.”
Mr Salame rejects this accusation. The financial engineering was to buy time, he said, for politicians to reform the bloated government and curb spending. But the stability it bought “is not a pretext not to do reforms”, he insists. He warned that Banque du Liban should not be used for politics: “The central bank is not an instrument to be used in order to force certain changes.”
The state depends on the central bank to meet its dollar debt servicing obligations, which will cost around $4bn next year. But rating agencies say that on a net basis, the bank’s foreign currency holdings are negative. Its forex reserves will be $28bn by the end of the year, yet Fitch estimates that the central bank’s dollar liabilities to Lebanese banks stand at $67bn.
Moody’s says requests to the IMF are “credit positive”, and a new government — under Mr Diab — may start talks about a new loan programme, which could provide some much-needed financial stability. But first the fractious political factions — including Hizbollah — have to form a government.
They will also need to win back the support of a sceptical public. “The whole political system was bought with this Ponzi scheme,” says Ms Rizk.
Once known for its resilience, the country’s fragile financial system has triggered angry protests
The Financial Times

What protests in Lebanon can tell us about inequality worldwide
Mona Fawaz/Al Jazeera/January 01/2020
Confronting inequalities is not about merely bridging gaps, it requires confronting entrenched interests.
Lebanon is more than two months into the wave of protests rocking the country. Chief among the grievances driving people onto the streets are entrenched inequalities and compromised human dignity. Even given the notorious vacuum of data, Lebanon is clearly a highly unequal place where nearly a quarter of income is held by the richest 1 percent, a larger share than in, for example, South Africa and the US. Poverty is staggering and is well recognised as the outcome of public policymaking driven by elite interests. This is why protesters no longer call for policy reform. Denouncing the deeply entrenched private interests that tie the main pillars of Lebanon’s failing economy to the ruling elite, they are demanding a radical transformation of the political system. They have evidence from the UN to back them up; the just-launched Human Development Report focuses on inequality and supports radical reforms to change the fundamentals of how our societies, economies and political systems work. It calls for confronting elite interests to stop the distribution of political power mirroring that of economic power.
Lebanon’s protests are led by a young generation dissatisfied with the lack of options to work and live with dignity. They are revolted by a status quo that destines them to emigration, as the future suppliers of remittances that will balance the notorious deficit of public coffers. Like many in the Middle East, they have had to live through wars, large waves of forced displacement and undemocratic rule.
Unlike older generations, today’s protesters are unwilling to compromise, unafraid to defy, and outraged by structural inequalities that they associate openly with crony capitalism, sectarianism, patriarchy, and homophobia. They have loudly made their points clear in marches, chants and graffiti. Their complete loss of confidence in government has made #no_trust one of the most trending hashtags in the past weeks.
But the most precarious populations – refugees, migrant workers, and the poorest Lebanese families – have not been able to join the predominantly middle-class protesters. Effectively disenfranchised, they have neither been able to visibly join the protests nor demonstrate their anger.
The first heavy rains of the season have flooded the streets and homes of the informal settlements where they live. Neglected for decades, these precarious neighbourhoods are overflowing with people who cannot find alternative shelters in cities ravaged by the financialisation of land.
Once considered self-help neighbourhoods in the making, on a trajectory to become legitimate parts of the city, informal urban settlements have become reservoirs of populations deemed superfluous, with no recognised entitlements.
Owing to climate change, downpours are heavier and their effects on precarious neighbourhoods are more dramatic. Roofs have crumbled, a family died and homes have overflowed. Their enforced silence means the protesters only represent the very tip of the iceberg of deprivation.
As the Human Development Report argues, income alone fails to account for the lifelong disadvantages these shadow city-dwellers face. Nationality and parental income effectively define someone’s lifelong access to adequate healthcare and education – or lack thereof. Some divides cross borders; women are at a disadvantage everywhere. Beginning at birth, inequity defines the freedom and opportunities of children, adults and elders.
Confronting such inequalities is not about merely bridging gaps, it requires confronting entrenched interests. Citizens in Lebanon are denouncing today’s elites using their wealth to capture government and mould policies to their will. Their claims are well-documented in scholarly works.
Economist Nisrine Salti recently connected rising poverty levels to the unfair tax system. Facundo Alvaredo, Lydia Assouad and Thomas Piketty have identified the Middle East as the most inequitable region of the world, arguing for a closer examination of fiscal injustices to determine the true extent of inequality and their roots in subverted policy-making. Unjustly levied taxes are part and parcel of the model of government denounced by protesters in Lebanon for sustaining the wealthy, their banks, and the political system at the expense of the majority.
My fellow citizens caught the world’s attention by prompting a prime minister to quit. With all eyes on them, they now have the opportunity to outline an ambitious programme for reform, which would never happen if left to the whim of those at the top. I hope to see reforms that meaningfully tackle inequality for current and future generations, which provide opportunities throughout people’s lives. Such a palette of interventions should include investments in higher education, quality healthcare and ensuring access to technology (and reliable electricity to power it).
Through taking to the streets, Lebanon’s protesters have woken up a nation. By plotting a path of prosperity for all, they can lift it up.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
*Mona Fawaz is a Professor of Urban Studies & Planning at the American University of Beirut.