Photo/Illutration Carlos Ghosn, the former Nissan Motor chairman, gestures during his news conference in Beirut on Jan. 8. (Kotaro Ebara)

A senior prosecutor moved up his regularly scheduled news conference by a week to counter Carlos Ghosn’s claims about his “nightmare” in Japanese custody and his escape from “injustice and political persecution.”

Takahiro Saito, the deputy chief prosecutor at the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, on Jan. 9 rejected Ghosn’s suggestion that investigators and Nissan Motor Co. executives had conspired to bring down the former chairman of the automaker.

Saito said investigators obtained a large amount of objective evidence to back up their financial misconduct case against Ghosn, including e-mails from individuals involved.

Ghosn, who was indicted on multiple charges, including aggravated breach of trust, fled Japan in late December.

At his news conference in Beirut on Jan. 8, Ghosn said that after his arrest in November 2018, he was “interrogated for up to eight hours a day, without any lawyers present.” He added that prosecutors repeatedly urged him to confess.

Saito said Ghosn was absolutely wrong and that his statements were based on false preconditions.

The prosecutor said Ghosn was questioned for about four hours a day on average, and he was allowed to see his lawyers for about two hours every day, except on Sundays, to seek their advice.

The questioning of Ghosn was recorded on video and audio tapes, Saito said, and prosecutors never had a predetermined plot line in mind nor did they force Ghosn to confess.

Ghosn also blasted the Japanese judicial system for not allowing him to contact his wife, Carole. He also criticized the recent arrest warrant issued for Carole on suspicion of perjury.

However, Saito said Carole had tried to conceal evidence by asking those involved in the case to respond to questions from investigators in a way that matched Ghosn’s defense arguments.

Saito said Ghosn’s wife lied about such actions when she was questioned, and he called her statements “egregious.”

Saito also criticized Ghosn’s lawyers in Japan for refusing to turn over their client’s computer, which he used after being released on bail.

“The computer will be necessary to determine if he was complying with the conditions of his release, so I believe the court should take some sort of action,” Saito said.

Ghosn’s news conference in Beirut sparked an immediate and multilingual backlash from Japan’s Justice Ministry. Saito himself issued a statement under his name to rebuke Ghosn’s claims hours before his Jan. 9 news conference.

About 100 reporters gathered for Ghosn’s Beirut news conference. Saito’s news conference, which lasted about 80 minutes, attracted about 30 reporters, including some from foreign media organizations.