Former President Donald Trump joins a growing list of world leaders convicted after leaving office, with many critics in the U.S. claiming that such measures hurt the country\u2019s image as a global leader.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A New York City court found Trump guilty of falsifying business documents related to payments made to Michael Cohen, who had paid porn actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. World leaders largely offered restrained comment on the verdict, but some of Trump\u2019s closest allies criticized the decision and urged him to \u2018keep fighting.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
Many have argued that the former president was targeted for political reasons, citing the fact that other cases were opened against him around the same time \u2013 though the other three cases, such as the Georgia trial, were delayed \u2013 as well as Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg campaigning on his promise to go after Trump.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trump insisted that his trial, which included a gag order preventing him from discussing the case, occurred to keep him out of the upcoming election because Democrats \u2018can\u2019t win at the ballot box.\u2019 Biden, meanwhile, has blasted any efforts to undermine the decision as \u2018reckless\u2019 and \u2018irresponsible\u2019 while quipping that he had \u2018no idea I was that powerful\u2019 in response to claims he had orchestrated the trial.<\/p>\n
Here are some other countries where opposition leaders or candidates have faced prosecution, sometimes even ahead of elections.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No case in modern politics of opposition suppression stands as notorious as Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s ongoing saga to keep his chief political rival Alexei Navalny out of office: Russian courts determined Navalny had violated probationary terms by leaving the country, during which time he suffered an attempt on his life while in Germany.<\/p>\n
The Russian court ultimately convicted Navalny on charges of extremism and sentenced him to 19 years in prison, where he ultimately died due to brutal conditions during his confinement. U.S. intelligence officials in April determined that Putin likely did not order Navalny\u2019s death, even if they ultimately hold him responsible for the treatment that led to the politician\u2019s death.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s verdict overshadowed news out of Hong Kong that 14 opposition figures had been convicted of \u2018conspiring to subvert state power,\u2019 drawing condemnation from watchdog groups such as Amnesty International, who called the decision \u2018unprecedented\u2019 and \u2018the most ruthless illustration yet of how Hong Kong\u2019s National Security Law is weaponized to silence dissent.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
Former lawmakers Leung Kwok-hung, Lam Cheuk-ting, Helena Wong and Raymond Chan are among the dozen defendants who could face life in prison when sentenced later this year, ABC News reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Prosecutors went after 47 democracy advocates who took part in an unofficial primary election that would have undermined the government\u2019s authority through a potential constitutional crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Critics have accused Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of using the courts to prevent his main political rival Arvind Kejriwal, chief minister of the capital Dehli, from running and campaigning for the upcoming elections.<\/p>\n
Several leaders of an opposition alliance remain under investigation, and Kejriwal\u2019s party has accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of \u2018political conspiracy,\u2019 according to Reuters. Kejriwal remains in pre-trial detention while awaiting a decision on his appeal against an arrest for alleged corruption related to Delhi\u2019s liquor policy. \u00a0<\/p>\n
India\u2019s top court provisionally released Kejriwal from jail so he could campaign for the elections, which he has dramatically claimed will determine whether India \u2018remains a democracy\u2019 and accused Modi of targeting rivals with criminal probes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won re-election in 2022 after leaving prison due to the country\u2019s Supreme Court nullifying his conviction on money laundering and corruption charges, citing serious biases in the case against him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lula, arrested as part of \u2018Operation Car Wash,\u2019 allegedly had traded favors with a construction company in exchange for the promise of a beachfront apartment. His arrest and conviction deeply divided Brazil and led to heated legal back-and-forth over the following years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro has seen a number of his opponents jailed for various crimes, with opposition leader Nelson Pinero of the center-right Encuentro Ciudadano party recently jailed on charges of incitement to hatred, El Pa\u00eds reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin) allegedly entered Pinero\u2019s house without a search warrant. Another politician, presidential candidate Delsa Solorzano, denounced the arrest, saying that \u2018Nelson is one more political prisoner of this dictatorship, which has taken 300 citizens to jail for thinking differently.\u2019<\/p>\n
Maduro also saw government opponents jailed in 2017 in a strong crackdown against a new government, jailing opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez and veteran politician Antonio Ledezma for planning to flee the country and violating house arrest terms by making political statements to the media, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n
Kem Sokha, the Cambodian opposition leader, was convicted of treason and sentenced to 27 years in jail. He appealed his charges, which Amnesty International condemned as \u2018baseless\u2019 and urged the country\u2019s authorities to \u2018end their ongoing crackdown against opposition groups.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Anyone who dares to speak out against the government is at risk,\u2019 Amnesty International\u2019s Deputy Regional Director for Research Montse Ferrer wrote ahead of the appeal hearing.<\/p>\n
\u2018Cambodian authorities must respect, protect, promote and fulfill the human rights of everyone in the country including the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, and end the increasing restriction of civic space,\u2019 he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n\n
Former President Donald Trump joins a growing list of world leaders convicted after leaving office, with many critics in the U.S. claiming that such measures hurt the country\u2019s image as a global leader.\u00a0 A New York City court found Trump guilty of falsifying business documents related to payments made to Michael Cohen, who had paid <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":19886,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19885","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}