Nissan Motor said it still reserved the right to take further legal measures in the case of its ousted former chairman Carlos Ghosn, after the United States arrested two men on charges they enabled his escape from Japan.

"Nissan notes the extradition proceedings in the US. As previously announced, Nissan finds the former chairman's flight from justice extremely regrettable," the company said in a statement to the Reuters news agency.

"While not a party to these extradition proceedings, Nissan continues to reserve the right to take further legal measures as appropriate."

Ghosn, speaking publicly for the first time last January, since his escape from Japanese justice, told reporters in Beirut he had been treated "brutally" by Tokyo prosecutors he accused of helping Nissan to oust him as chairman.

The former Nissan CEO told a packed news conference in Lebanon he was not confident he would face a fair trial had he remained in Japan.

He fled Japan in December where he was awaiting trial on charges of under reporting earnings, breach of trust and misappropriation of company funds, all of which he denied.

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Ghosn said he had fled to Lebanon to clear his name.

"You are going to die in Japan or you are going to have to get out," Ghosn said, according to Reuters.

"I felt like the hostage of a country I served for 17 years."

Ghosn reportedly had been smuggled out of Japan in a musical instrument case carried on a private jet.

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