Prosecutors raid lawyer's office where Ghosn worked on case

Tokyo prosecutors on Jan. 8 raided a Japanese lawyer's office where former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn had visited regularly before skipping bail last week and fleeing to Lebanon.

Japanese news footage showed prosecutors marching into Junichiro Hironaka's office in Tokyo, where a woman answering the phone said the lawyers weren't there to comment and hung up. Prosecutors declined immediate comment.

Ghosn was under strict bail conditions while preparing for his trial on financial misconduct allegations. But he had been allowed to use a computer at his lawyer's office under those conditions.

Japanese media reports said prosecutors had likely seized the computer to track down how Ghosn escaped and who might have helped him.

Hironaka has previously said he was stunned by Ghosn's departure. He has also said he will not disclose information related to Ghosn's case because of attorney-client privilege.

Ghosn said from Lebanon he fled to escape injustice. He has insisted he is innocent.

A statement released in Ghosn's defense earlier Wednesday slammed the automaker's internal investigation as flawed and aimed only at taking him down.

"Nissan's claim that it conducted `a robust, thorough internal investigation' is a gross perversion of the truth,'' said a statement from French consultancy company Image Sept for the defense team.

"It was initiated and carried out for the specific, predetermined purpose of taking down Carlos Ghosn to prevent him from further integrating Nissan and Renault, which threatened the independence of Nissan, one of Japan's iconic, flagship companies.''

Ghosn, who led the Japanese automaker for two decades, has repeatedly characterized the Japanese criminal case against him as...