Court keeps travel ban for pilots charged over Ghosn escape

A Turkish court hearing the case against four pilots, two flight attendants and a private airline official accused of smuggling former Nissan Motor chairman Carlos Ghosn out of Japan to Lebanon via Istanbul, on Thursday rejected a request for the pilots’ travel bans to be lifted, a lawyer said. In the second hearing of the case, the court listened to testimony from two ground technicians who said they saw the airline official accompanying Ghosn in Istanbul while he left one jet and boarded the next, the state-run Anadolu Agency said. The court then adjourned the trial until Jan. 20. The seven are accused of helping Ghosn flee while he awaited trial in Japan. Turkish prosecutors are seeking up to eight years in prison each for the four pilots and the airline official on charges of illegally smuggling a “migrant.” The two flight attendants face a one-year prison term each if convicted of not reporting a crime. In the opening trial in July, the court released the four pilots and the airline official from custody pending the outcome of their trial, but barred them from leaving Turkey. They were also ordered to report to authorities at regular intervals. The flight attendants were not under custody. The pilots and flight attendants have denied involvement in the plans to smuggle Ghosn or of knowing that Ghosn was aboard the flights. <br/>