This Dec. 30, 2019 image from security camera video shows Michael L. Taylor, center, and George-Antoine Zayek at passport control at Istanbul Airport in Turkey. (DHA via AP)

       TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japanese prosecutors asked the Tokyo District Court on Friday to give two Americans accused of helping former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn escape from Japan in 2019 prison sentences of at least two years.

       Michael Taylor, a 60-year-old former Green Beret, and his son Peter, 28, pleaded guilty at their first court hearing in June, and the prosecutors are pushing for jail terms of two years and 10 months for the former and two years and six months for the latter.

       The court is scheduled to hand down its rulings on July 19.

       According to the indictment, the two helped Ghosn, 67, flee from his residence in Tokyo's Minato Ward to a hotel in the capital and then another in Osaka Prefecture on Dec. 29, 2019 before making their way to Kansai International Airport.

       They then hid Ghosn in a box, passed through airport security and flew him aboard a private jet to Turkey despite knowing that the former auto titan was prohibited from traveling abroad under his bail conditions.

       Ghosn then flew to Lebanon, one of three countries of which he is a national and which does not have an extradition treaty with Japan.

       The former Nissan chairman, who was arrested in 2018, faces charges of underreporting his remuneration by millions of yen for years and misusing the automaker's funds. He has denied all charges, insisting he is the victim of a coup staged by Nissan executives.

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