AMERICAN DUO IN GHOSN ESCAPE EXTRADITED TO JAPAN

An American man and his son accused of helping former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn flee Japan in 2019 while on bail were taken into Japanese custody after the two were handed over for extradition by the United States.

Kyodo News reported that a flight from Boston carrying Michael Taylor, 60, a former Green Beret, and his son Peter Taylor, 28, touched down at Narita airport near Tokyo in the afternoon.

The handover came after they lost their battle against extradition last month. The two men were arrested in Massachusetts in May last year by U.S. authorities at the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office's request.

After arriving, the two were moved inside the airport under tight security, with a tarp held by authorities covering them from sight.

The pair was placed at the Tokyo Detention House, where Ghosn himself had been detained before he was granted bail, and they will face questioning by Japanese prosecutors.

The Taylors' lawyers had sought help from the U.S. government, requesting, in a letter dated early February, that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken halt their extradition to Japan.

The letter said the two men will likely face repeated and extended interrogation in Japan under conditions amounting to torture.

But Hiroshi Yamamoto, deputy chief prosecutor, said at a press conference they will be treated properly.

The prosecutors obtained arrest warrants in January last year for Ghosn and the Taylors, who are suspected of helping smuggle the former auto tycoon out of Japan hidden inside a box used to transport music equipment on a private jet on Dec. 29, 2019.

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