Former automobile magnate Carlos Ghosn during a press conference in January 2020 in Beirut. (Credit: AFP archive photo)
The Beirut Court of Appeal, presided over by Habib Mezher, recently issued a decision suspending the eviction of Carlos Ghosn from his Beirut home in practice, but without confirming or annulling it in a ruling. Former car magnate Ghosn lodged the appeal against an order by Beirut interim relief judge Hala Naja to evict him from his home in the Achrafieh area of the Lebanese capital.
According to an informed source contacted by L'Orient-Le Jour, the court asked the magistrate in charge of executing Naja's judgment to hand over the expulsion case file, so that it could be studied at the same time as the appeal lodged by the former head of the Renault-Nissan Alliance. In so doing, the court's decision to confirm or overturn the expulsion order will be deferred until it has completed its study of the two cases — a process for which no definitive time frame has been announced.
According to the above-mentioned source, the Court of Appeal decided to join the two cases after Ghosn asked it last week to introduce Nissan into the ongoing lawsuit for "trespass" brought by Phoinos, a company affiliated to the Japanese carmaker and which claims ownership of the Achrafieh premises at which Ghosn resides.
Ghosn, for his part, asserts that there is an agreement signed with Nissan granting him the right to live in the house, for which he had obtained a promise of sale. While the court completes its study and then rules on the stay of execution of the eviction, Ghosn will be able to remain in his residence, even though the summary judgment ordered him to vacate it by Nov. 20 at the latest.
