The former Renault-Nissan boss faced the media for the first time since he fled Japan. Here’s what we learned

Carlos Ghosn, the former Renault-Nissan chair, made his long-awaited appearance before the world’s media on Wednesday at a lengthy and often rambling press conference in Beirut.

Here are the key points from his appearance.

My unimaginable ordeal is the result of a handful of unscrupulous, vindictive individuals.

I was brutally taken from my work as I knew it, ripped from my work, my family and my friends. It is impossible to express the depth of that deprivation and my profound appreciation to be able to be reunited with my family and loved ones. (I was) interrogated for up eight hours a day without any lawyers present. ‘It will get worse for you if you don’t just confess’, the prosecutor told me repeatedly.

I don’t consider myself as a prisoner in Lebanon. I prefer this prison to the one before. I am ready to stay a long time in Lebanon, but I am going to fight because I have to clear my name.

I’ve been in a kind of nightmare for 13 months. It started when I saw the face of the prosecutor, and it ended when I saw the face of my wife.