Ghosn's Lawyers Resign
A number of Japanese lawyers for former Nissan Motor chairman Carlos Ghosn have resigned, following his escape to Lebanon.
Lawyer Junichiro Hironaka told reporters that he resigned as of Thursday.
Sources say other lawyers, including Takashi Takano, also resigned.
They say lawyer Hiroshi Kawatsu and some others will continue to defend Ghosn.
Ghosn has been indicted on charges of understating his executive compensation in Nissan's securities reports, and aggravated breach of trust for suspected misappropriation of company funds.
But the former chairman skipped bail and fled to Lebanon late last month without telling his defense team. He says he did so because he could not expect a fair trial in Japan.
Also on Thursday, pretrial talks to sort out points of contention were held at the Tokyo District Court for the first time since Ghosn left Japan.
Sources say that at the closed-door meeting, the court decided to hold Ghosn's trial separately from that of his former close aide Greg Kelly and Nissan as an entity.
The trial for Kelly and Nissan is expected to start as early as in April.
