Two lawyers defending former Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn submitted their resignations on Wednesday, their law firm said in a statement, in a stunning twist to the nearly three-month case over alleged financial misconduct by the 64-year-old Franco-Brazilian-Lebanese tycoon.
There was no immediate explanation as to why the attorneys, who include lead lawyer Motonari Otsuru, were quitting Ghosn's defense team.
A brief statement said only that "today Otsuru and (Masato) Oshikubo submitted letters of resignation to the court as the defense lawyers for the case of Mr. Ghosn".
Ghosn confirmed a report by Japan's Sankei newspaper that he had hired lawyer Junichiro Hironaka to replace Otsuru.
"As we begin the trial phase, I have decided to engage Hironaka-sensei as my legal counsel," said a statement issued on behalf of Ghosn by French public relations firm Image 7.
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"I look forward to defending myself vigorously," Ghosn's statement said. "This represents the beginning of the process of not only establishing my innocence but also shedding light on the circumstances that led to my unjust detention."
The former Nissan executive has been in detention since November 19 and faces three charges including under-reporting his compensation and attempting to shift losses to his employer's books.
Ghosn denies the charges and told the Nikkei newspaper that Nissan executives opposed to his plans for closer ties with automaking partner Renault SA plotted to remove him.
Renault owns 43 percent of Nissan, and Nissan owns 15 percent of Renault. There is talk of merging the two automakers under one holding company.
Nissan lowered its profit forecast for the full year on Tuesday, partly due to special charges against Ghosn.
Nissan Motor Co.'s profit in the October-December quarter was 70.4 billion yen ($637 million), down from 301.6 billion yen the previous year. Quarterly sales grew 6 percent to 3.05 trillion yen ($27.5 billion).
The main factor behind the sharp weakening in profit for the fiscal third quarter was the absence of a lift from U.S. tax reforms that sharply boosted Nissan's earnings in late 2017.
The maker of the Leaf electric vehicle, X-Trail sport utility vehicle and Infiniti luxury models cut its profit forecast for the fiscal year through March to 410 billion yen ($3.7 billion), down 45 percent on year. The previous projection was for a 500 billion yen (4.5 billion) profit.
The company said the main reason for the downgrade was faltering sales in China and the US.
But it also logged about 9.2 billion yen ($83 million) in costs related to the alleged false underreporting of Ghosn's compensation, according to Nissan.
