ISTANBUL — A Turkish court acquitted three people over former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn’s escape via Istanbul to Lebanon after fleeing Japan, a lawyer for one of the defendants said.

A jet company executive and two pilots, who were detained for several months, were sentenced to four years and two months in jail in 2021 over the charge of migrant smuggling.

Mehmet Fatih Danaci, a lawyer for the jet operator executive, said on Tuesday that an appeals court ordered the retrial of the case and returned the file to the lower court.

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“We appealed the ruling. In the retrial, the court acquitted our client, along with two pilots who were initially convicted,” Danaci told Reuters.

Ghosn, once an influential leader in the global auto industry, was arrested in Japan in late 2018 and charged with financial misconduct. He denied the charge and said his detention was part of a plot by Nissan executives to block a merger.

The ousted chairman of the alliance of Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors fled to Lebanon in late 2019 while awaiting trial and has since been living as a fugitive.