A Lebanese judge on Monday questioned auto tycoon Carlos Ghosn in Beirut over possible links to a former French Cabinet minister charged two years ago with “passive corruption" for work she did for him, officials familiar with the case said. The Lebanese officials said Ghosn denied any dealings with France’s former Justice Minister Rachida Dati who is accused of having done consulting work for Ghosn for two years starting in 2010 when she was a member of the European parliament. Dati was accused in 2021 of “passive corruption by a person who at the time was holding an elective mandate" and “benefiting from abuse of power.” She was suspected of lobbying which would have been illegal in her position. The former head of Nissan and Renault denied during the questioning in Beirut that Nissan had paid about $1 million for Dati in lawyer fees, added the officials speaking on condition of anonymity. The officials said Beirut recently received a new Red Notice from Interpol and summoned Ghosn for questioning on Monday where he came with his lawyer to attend the session. It was the third Red Notice that Lebanon has received since Ghosn fled from Japan in late 2019. A Red Notice is not an international arrest warrant but a request to law enforcement to provisionally arrest the person of interest. Monday’s questioning was the first for Ghosn since May last year when he was summoned for questioning days after Beirut received a Red Notice from Interpol at the request of the French prosecutor’s office. The notice was for Ghosn and four other people based on an investigation opened in 2019 into money laundering and abuse of company assets. Dati was the toast of Paris and foreign capitals when she served as justice minister under then-President Nicolas Sarkozy from June 2007 to June 2009. With her Algerian and Moroccan parents and humble origins as one of 11 children in a housing project, she was his emblem of diversity in a new France. Her bling-bling style — a penchant for Dior clothes, stiletto heels and expensive jewels — quickly transformed her into Cabinet cover girl. In 2019, Ghosn jumped bail while being questioned in Japan in a daring escape by hiding in a box spirited aboard a private jet. He fled to Lebanon which does not extradite its citizens. Prosecutors in Japan charged three Americans with helping Ghosn escape the country. Renault and Nissan have been distancing themselves from the scandal. Ghosn, who has citizenship in Lebanon, France and Brazil, has repeatedly professed his innocence. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Egyptian family awaits word on son as village mourns dozens feared drowned trying to reach Europe Tunisia says attacker fatally stabbed police officer at Brazilian Embassy; suspect arrested Greek court postpones hearing for smuggling suspects in deadly migrant boat sinking until Tuesday

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Everyone’s favourite self-deprecating Scot, Lewis Capaldi, set his old school a challenge to create a “deliberately odd” sculpture of him – and… well… they certainly delivered. The “Someone You Loved” singer, whose second album Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent came out on Friday, made a visit to St Kentigern’s Academy in West Lothian on Tuesday morning – ahead of two intimate acoustic performances in Edinburgh later. Sharing pictures of the big unveiling to Twitter, the academy’s art department wrote: “So today our Top Secret project was unveiled at SWG3 with a young musician and ex-pupil who has done quite well – Lewis Capaldi. “The amazing S4 students and art staff created a deliberately odd sculpture of Lewis as requested by his team. He loved it and laughed along!” The artwork was created to coincide with the release of Capaldi's sophomore album, which follows on from his 2019 debut Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent. After being presented with the sculpture, the "Forget Me" songwriter joked: “You’ve really captured my essence. It’s pretty weird-looking, but I like it.” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter He went on to thank the students for creating it, saying he does “genuinely love it” but that it “will give me nightmares”. “It’s a weird thing to look at – like yourself, but not yourself.” And Twitter was impressed by the creation too: Of course, it’s not the first eyebrow-raising piece of art to be made in recent years, as back in 2012 a botched attempt to restore a painting of Jesus Christ went viral because it was that bad. Then in 2017, there was the infamous sculpture/bust of footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, which was just as troubling. Even former prime minister Liz Truss had an unflattering sculpture made of her last year. Budding artists out there, please never change. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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