CNN
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Donald Trump will be the first former US president to face prison costs, however around the globe many present and former leaders have been prosecuted and even frolicked in jail.
A lot of these leaders denounced the accusations in opposition to them as politically-motivated. However costs have usually not been a barrier to holding political workplace.
Listed below are some notable current examples.
Nobody has served as Israeli prime minister longer than Benjamin Netanyahu, who was sworn in for his sixth time period within the submit late final 12 months.
The prime minister can be at the moment going through a corruption trial, on costs of fraud, bribery and breach of belief. A few of the allegations assert that Netanyahu acquired presents like cigars and champagne from abroad businessmen.
Echoing a few of the language utilized by Trump, Netanyahu has denied all the fees and known as the trial a “witch hunt.”
Because the case rumbles on, Netanyahu has been pushing a controversial plan to weaken Israel’s judicary.
One of many measures consists of limits on the methods a sitting prime minister will be declared unfit for workplace, resulting in many Israeli opposition politicians claiming that Netanyahu is utilizing the judicial overhaul to guard himself. He denies the accusations.
Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was imprisoned in April 2018, spending a 12 months and a half behind bars till his launch in November 2019.
He was sentenced for corruption and cash laundering, after he and his spouse allegedly acquired about $1.1 million in enhancements and bills from a development firm for a beachfront condo.
In change, prosecutors stated, the corporate was in a position to acquire profitable contracts from Petrobras, the state-controlled oil big.
Lula has known as the fees a “farce,” claiming the fees had been politically motivated. Following his launch from jail in 2019, a Brazilian court docket threw out his corruption convictions, which allowed Lula to run within the 2022 presidential election the place he defeated Jair Bolsonaro. He was sworn in as president for the third time in January.
It’s now Bolsonaro who faces potential authorized issues, together with accusations that he incited violent assaults within the capital, Brasilia, in January.
Argentinian Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was sentenced to 6 years in jail final December after being discovered responsible of corruption throughout her two phrases as president, from 2007 to 2011 and 2011 to 2015.
She was accused of conspiring with different authorities officers to award contracts price thousands and thousands of {dollars} for highway works that, in response to the criticism, had been incomplete, overpriced and pointless.
Fernández de Kirchner has stated the fees in opposition to her had been politically-motivated.
The Argentinian court docket discovered the 70-year-old, who had beforehand served because the nation’s president, responsible of “fraudulent administration” and disqualified her from holding public workplace once more.
She does, although, have short-term immunity due to her present function, that means she received’t be going to jail quickly, and might enchantment.
In a unprecedented change in fortune, Anwar Ibrahim grew to become Malaysian prime minister in November 2022 after two stints in jail previous to his premiership.
Anwar was jailed in April 1999 after being convicted of sodomy. Even when consensual, sodomy is an offense punishable by as much as 20 years in jail in Muslim-majority Malaysia. He has all the time strongly denied the fees, claiming they had been politically motivated.
That conviction was overturned by a court docket in 2004. After his return as an opposition determine, extra allegations of sodomy had been made in opposition to him and – following a protracted court docket battle that occurred over a interval of years – he returned to jail in 2014.
Anwar acquired a royal pardon and was launched from jail in Could 2018. He rapidly returned to parliament, earlier than main the Pakatan Harapan coalition to win a plurality of seats within the 2022 Malaysian basic election.
The flamboyant Italian tycoon was a serial prime minister till standing down in 2011.
Berlusconi was the dominant determine in Italian politics for practically 20 years, a interval which additionally noticed him tried on at the least 17 costs, involving allegations of embezzlement, tax fraud and bribery.
He has all the time denied wrongdoing and most of the circumstances had been overturned on enchantment.
It was not authorized worries however Italy’s debt disaster that led to his 2011 resignation.
After leaving workplace, Berlusconi was subsequently convicted of tax fraud, the place he was sentenced to 1 12 months of neighborhood service at a nursing house, whereas a court docket overturned his conviction for paying for intercourse with an underage prostitute.
Berlusconi was additionally discovered responsible of bribing a senator to alter political factions, however didn’t serve jail time.
In September 2022, the 81-year-old received a seat in Italy’s Senate and his social gathering is a part of Italy’s ruling coalition.
