Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn could be in jail for another six months before he is granted bail, his lawyer says.
Appearing in court for the first time since his shock arrest in Japan in November 2018, Mr Ghosn told the court he had been "wrongly accused and unfairly detained.”
His lawyer, Motonari Otsuru, said that in general, in such cases in Japan, bail was usually not approved before the first trial takes place, adding that it could be six months before that first trial was held.
Mr Ghosn, a cult figure in Japan, been accused of "significant acts of misconduct", including under-reporting his pay package and personal use of company assets.
Once hailed as the man who saved Nissan by building alliance with Renault, Mr Ghosn is also accused of making $14.7m in payments using Nissan funds to Saudi businessman Khaled al-Juffali, in exchange for arranging a letter of credit to help with his investment losses.
If found guilty of the charges brought against him, Mr Ghosn faces up to 10 years in prison as well as a fine of up to 700m yen (€5.62m), according to Japanese regulators.
He told the Tokyo District court: "I have been wrongly accused and unfairly detained, based on meritless and unsubstantiated accusations."
He was first arrested on 19 November for understating his pay and rearrested twice in December on fresh allegations involving breach of trust.
