By Theo Leggett

with additional reporting by Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Japan

When Carlos Ghosn flew into Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on a November afternoon in 2018, he was at the height of his powers.

He was the chairman of Nissan, the man credited with saving the Japanese carmaker from potential bankruptcy. He was also chief executive of the French carmaker Renault – and the driving force behind a global alliance between the two. Along with the smaller manufacturer Mitsubishi, they made up a motor industry group that sold more than 10 million cars a year.

November 2018: Nissan's company jet landing at Tokyo's Haneda Airport November 2018: Nissan's company jet landing at Tokyo's Haneda Airport

He was used to dividing his time between Paris and Tokyo, not to mention regularly checking in on the group’s operations in North America. This globetrotting lifestyle came with perks, such as the use of a corporate jet. Brazilian born, raised in Lebanon and educated in France, he had close ties to all three countries, and had the use of luxury homes in Rio de Janeiro, Paris and Beirut, as well as Tokyo.

He arrived in Tokyo that day from Beirut. As his sleek corporate jet made its way across the airport tarmac it was easily identifiable by the registration emblazoned on the white engine nacelles - N155AN.

Ghosn was unaware of what awaited him inside the terminal.

On arrival, he says he was picked up by a car and taken to passport control, where he was informed that there was a problem with his visa. He was escorted to a small side room, where he was arrested, to be charged with serious financial crimes.

Within hours of landing, he was locked in a prison cell.

He was not the only target. Greg Kelly, one of Ghosn’s closest confidants, was apprehended separately after flying in to a different Japanese airport from the US - having been summoned to what he thought was an urgent meeting.

The 63-year-old US citizen was a “representative director” of the company and was officially charged with carrying out the board’s wishes. In practical terms, he was Ghosn’s enforcer. For health reasons, he had planned to join the meeting by video link. But according to his wife, the company insisted he attended in person - and arranged a private jet for him.

Following their arrests, the pair were taken to Tokyo’s Kosuge Detention Centre in the city’s north-east. It was here, in a tiny cell, that Ghosn would remain for the next four months. He was subject to daily interrogations, as prosecutors sought a confession from him.

Kelly, who suffers from spinal problems, was released on bail just over a month later – but not before his wife, Dee, had published a video message in the US in which she complained bitterly about his treatment at the hands of the Japanese authorities.

He remains in Japan awaiting trial – in many ways the forgotten man of the whole affair.

In March 2019, Ghosn was briefly released, having posted bail of $9m (£6.9m). But he was re-arrested on fresh charges before finally allowed to leave jail again in late April, on payment of a further $4.5m bond.

But there were significant restrictions on his movements, including an effective ban on seeing or communicating with his wife. Even when he was allowed to speak with her by internet link on Christmas Eve - a very rare privilege approved by the court - a lawyer had to be present, listening in.

Ghosn’s biographer Philippe Ries spent several weeks in Tokyo last year, meeting with him on a daily basis. He has spoken to him since his escape and thinks the way his wife was treated was a key factor in his decision to abscond.

Carole Ghosn - his second wife - had been Ghosn’s most vocal supporter. Early in his incarceration, she wrote an excoriating nine-page letter to the Japan office of Human Rights Watch, in which she railed against the “draconian” Japanese legal system. It allowed prosecutors, she said, to “interrogate him, browbeat him, lecture him and berate him” on a daily basis, without a lawyer being present.

April 2019: Carlos and Carole Ghosn in Tokyo April 2019: Carlos and Carole Ghosn in Tokyo

When Ghosn was re-arrested in April, police raided his home in the early hours of the morning while the couple slept. Carole Ghosn later told the BBC that while her husband was being apprehended an officer had followed her through their apartment, and even stood watch while she took a shower.

“I think they wanted to intimidate and humiliate us,” she said. “This woman even handed me the towel.”

Carole Ghosn herself was later questioned by the authorities, ostensibly as part of the investigation into her husband’s business affairs. She was not charged at the time, but left the country soon afterwards. In December the Japanese authorities widened their inquiry to other family members, interviewing his son Anthony and one of his daughters in New York

“They went after his family, and he is a family man,” says Philippe Ries. “His family is very important to him.”

“I am certain that played a big role in his decision to try to escape.”

January 2020: Carole Ghosn at her husband's press conference in Lebanon January 2020: Carole Ghosn at her husband's press conference in Lebanon

Throughout her husband’s time in jail, Carole Ghosn appealed to global leaders, including US President Donald Trump, the French President Emmanuel Macron and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro to intervene on her husband’s behalf.