One could argue this was a rightful fleeing of persecution. But it complicates the picture on many levels.
EDIT: looks like he kept a second French passport [1]. He would have only had to break many laws in two countries, mostly around aviation and declaration.
[1] https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/01/02/national/carlos...
I don't see at all how that follows.
It's clear he broke the Japanese exit law (you have to show your passport to leave Japan by air, unlike, say, USA, France, Australia etc). Also he violated the terms of his house arrest. Likely some others.
But while I'm hardly an expert in Turkish or Lebanese law, in most if not all countries immigration authorities have wide discretion to admit or deny people on whatever basis they wish. And while it's easy to imagine someone in Turkey taking a bribe, that could very well be an unfair belief: it's just as easy to imagine the current Turkish government being happy to poke a finger in Japan's eye in some minor and deniable fashion. As for Lebanon, someone who is a national celebrity could easily make prior arrangement to be admitted with no bribe needed.
Nitpicking, but you do need to show your passport when exiting the Schengen Area (to which France is a part of)
For all I know, they just do this to avoid the problem of their passenger not being admitted at the other end. But as a practical matter, I do have to show a passport (for a public flight, anyway).
The airlines want to see the passport too, but every time I've left the Schengen area (Germany, Netherlands, and Iceland), the national authority for that country checks my passport and stamps it with an exit stamp showing the date, time, and airport of departure.
That doesn't happen when leaving the United States: just the airlines want to see the passport to make sure you won't be immediately rejected at the destination.
^ (and I’m pretty sure entering my number at checkin is the critical one that’s matched against any important lists, right?)
So I don't think it is still part of Schengen area (or maybe in theory, but not in practice)
Won't be coming back, as Germany makes more sense for better connections to the rest of the EU, and no weird passport control on exit so I can safely keep my passport in the hotel safe while I visit Schengen countries.
Having my passport checked by border agents to exit a country rubs me the wrong way.
The equivalent here in the US would be if everyone was asked to show a passport by border agents after having gone through the TSA, when flying from say NYC to Miami - not acceptable.
I'd sure like to know if other people also experienced that in the Schengen area.
I think that you may be European. Here we have freedom of movement, and used to laugh at the USSR where people needed papers for internal travel. Sad to see it returning, and the Shengen idea now being dead for practical purposes.
https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/border...
Temporary? lol! that's what was said here for the patriot act too.
Looks like the EU is scraping Schengen. I think this cast a cloud of uncertainty on EU future.
List from the page you linked of countries with "temporary" controls that don't seem temporary at all to me:
Norway (12 November 2019 - 12 May 2020) Terrorist threats, secondary movements; ports with ferry connections with Denmark, Germany and Sweden;
Sweden (12 November 2019 - 12 May 2020) Terrorist threats, shortcomings at the external borders; to be determined but may concern all internal borders;
Denmark (12 November 2019 - 12 May 2020) Terrorist threats, organized criminality from Sweden; land border with Germany and with Sweden, ferry connections to Germany and to Sweden;
Germany (12 November 2019 - 12 May 2020) Secondary movements, situation at the external borders; land border with Austria;
Austria (12 November 2019 - 12 May 2020) Secondary movements, risk related to terrorists and organized crime, situation at the external borders; land borders with Hungary and with Slovenia;
France (31 October 2019 - 30 April 2020) Persistent terrorist threat, upcoming high profile political event in Paris, secondary movements; all internal borders.
Freedom of movement != not showing documentation. (And it doesn't need to be a passport)
The simplest example is getting into any country you're a citizen of from abroad.
Some Schengen airports have security->passport (example AMS), some others have passport->security (example CDG T2), it's a non-issue.
Pretty much every country checks passports when you're leaving. The US doesn't as I pointed out in another comment, so they can charge you for a transit visa. (Some other countries allow sterile transit and don't check passports on exit - UK comes to mind - but you need a passport to travel to pretty much anywhere else from there)
> "temporary" controls that don't seem temporary at all
They have an end date. That's pretty much the definition of temporary. And yes there were previous temporary checks that have come and gone.
(If temporary checks weren't possible I guarantee how we would be reading about how the EU was undemocratic for not allowing member states to control their borders yada yada yada, the usual cynicism and uninformed rants that are so common here)
An illegal immigrant or a terrorist traveling with an ak47 aren't included in the freedom of movement and goods, of course we have random border checks...
That has happened in the US before: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/no-more-id...
Real ID is also basically that, since you have to be legal to get an id in the US and the TSA check is linked to fed databases.
Random border checks have always been a thing in Europe, a passport is literally made for crossing borders, why would you keep it in an hotel if you know you'll be doing the only thing it is used for.
Excerpt from the article: The private jet on which he escaped reportedly landed in Istanbul first, prompting an investigation by Turkey.
It could also be that the Japanese were in on this: that they let him flee because they thought that the prosecution would have been seen as dubious, saving face in the process.
See: refugee migration.
"Not sticking" usually refers to a loophole or procedural error, not everyone doing the right thing.
[1]: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/turkey-arrests-pilots-ove...
Usually this valid reason boils down to having to submit your passport frequently for visas (eg. Brazil) such that it would impact your ability to travel internationally for other business.
How does this work?
I think the leb authorities will go through the motions. But I agree with you.
The bigger thieves are the Lebanese politicians who are the ire of the current protests in Lebanon. They have fleeced the country to the tune of billions... Multiples of what Carlos has been accused of.
But if you had an Israeli stamp in your passport - or left the slip of paper in, there's a whole host of other countries that will not let you in: Syria Lebanon Libya Kuwait Iran Iraq Pakistan Sudan Yemen
Israel may ask some extra questions - but they won't refuse you entry.
Israel would give you a very hard time if you had visas/stamps from neighbouring Arab states (and vice versa).
Under Apartheid, South African visas/stamps made it very difficult to enter other sub-saharan African countries.
Or catches up people that can’t get a lawyer/consultant’s advice before booking every trip.
It’s 2020 now, presumably you mean “people with no access to the internet”?
https://www.businesstraveller.com/features/apply-second-uk-p...
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-13/ingenious...
> You can—and should—hold two passports from the same country, simultaneously.
...
> You just need to show written evidence of your conflicting flights, with your name on the reservation. And remember: You can book refundable tickets as proof of travel, show them at the passport office, and then cancel them later. Then you’ll have one handy for any future travel traffic jams.
If you are still in possession of the original passport, the US will issue you a second passport so you can travel internationally during those events.
Same goes for applying for green cards (married a UK citizen? moving to the UK? They're going to take your passport for 30+ days).
I wonder why the plane did not go directly to Lebanon - it is probably to avoid raising suspicion.
They’ve finally started doing a better job of not requiring you to pickup your luggage while transiting only to drop it off another belt a minute later.
But that’s not universal.
If you don’t require transit visas it becomes fairly trivial to get into the US and claim asylum while supposedly in transit to somewhere else.
https://www.alllaw.com/articles/nolo/us-immigration/can-you-...
The only trick would be if the government a priori refused transit visas to people suspected of seeking asylum without hearing the asylum case, which would be a gross violation of immigration law.
How could it?
I think you may be thinking of refusing to honor an existing valid visa at the border, rather than refusing to issue one at all before someone travels.
Only citizens have an absolute right to entry.
Doesn’t Japan have exit controls?
Did they sneak him into the airport as maintenance personnel and then get him on a plane?
https://nypost.com/2019/12/31/ex-nissan-honcho-carlos-ghosan...
(Hiding in a musicians’ case; used by musicians who really weren’t).
Surely this will be made into a movie or even a series.
The airport part is not clear, but either they not very thorough when checking instruments for private jets, or they bribed someone I guess.
Japan now supports tourism efforts but charging 1000¥ to leave the country! https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/04/10/national/japans...
There are all kinds of manifest declaration requirements that would need to be ignored.
They often do make it hard to get on the plane there though. But once you get to a port of entry, you’re fine.
How can you prove who you are without an ID? Biometrics? Is logging in to Facebook enough?
Likely they can lookup your passport photos.
Since denying entry to a citizen can be a constitutional violation in many places, they’ll have some criteria for the documentation actually required.
Sending you back to the embassy will just move the problem elsewhere.
Things get dicier when there’s no records of you being a citizen (e.g. you were born elsewhere but acquired a citizenship because you were born to a citizen without registering it in any way).
Perhaps because you successfully applied for British citizenship in the UK forty years ago but the government deleted all the records! Several instances of this came to light in the Windrush scandal a couple of years ago.
The moral: if your citizenship is even slightly interesting you need to keep your passport current.
Getting denied boarding because I am a citizen.
By lineage, I’m a citizen of an EU country.
And the EU is launching a “not a visa but sounds a lot like a visa” travel authorization program for visa exempt passengers.
Q1 will probably be: are you a citizen of any of these EU countries?
Legally, I’ll be obligated to trace all this lineage back, through countries that no longer exist and get a lot of paperwork.
Presumably I can’t renounce said citizenship until I prove that I have it first...
The lineage is direct: both parents are citizen’s of that country’s successor.
But maybe it’s more discretionary in reality.
There’s always people willing to give you a hard time even if you’re in the right.
At least in Canada I know how to waste a lot of their time in return.
It doesn’t say “can acquire”, just “acquires”.
Not unlike an American or Canadian born abroad to natural-born Americans or Canadians.
Do you have a source for this? It would be unusual (and incompetent) for the Japanese to permit this.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/01/02/national/carlos...
Plausible non-illegal way: go to embassy, report passport lost/stolen, get a new one.
But I think they usually ask you to describe the circumstances of its loss.
> breaking lots of laws in at least three countries
Probably not. Crossing a border without your passport on you tends to be a pretty small offense.
Now crossing the border with no passport to escape another country's judiciary system is a whole different aggravating circumstance.
They’d probably be perfectly happy if you skipped out to another country while awaiting the process.
And bail is likely if your record’s been clean while you’re awaiting the process (unless they found something they really didn’t like).
I guess the only real consequence is if you tried to immigrate there later.
Man, I doubt anything of that was involved. People get paperless in and out of countries despite all of that security theatre every day.
It's not a secret that private flight immigration and security is a joke.
https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/07/weekinreview/ideas-trends...
This will help you understand everything about Ghosn case.
"Debito.org’s stance on the Carlos Ghosn Case, at last: A boardroom coup making “thin legal soup” that might shame Japan’s “hostage justice” judicial system into reform"
Of course, the fact that scenarios 1 and 2 are not incompatible, is not proof that they both happened, just pointing out that it is logically possible for both to be true.