What Other Countries Have Persecuted and Prosecuted Opposition Leaders?

After the Trump verdict, Peter Aitken of Fox News asks, Who else is on the list of infamous countries that prosecuted opposition leaders?

(See also: Who Else, Besides Donald Trump, Is a Convicted Felon?)

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’s image as a global leader. 

 … Here are some other countries where opposition leaders or candidates have faced prosecution, sometimes even ahead of elections. 

RUSSIA

No case in modern politics of opposition suppression stands as notorious as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 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.

 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. …

HONG KONG

Trump’s verdict overshadowed news out of Hong Kong that 14 opposition figures had been convicted of "conspiring to subvert state power," drawing condemnation from watchdog groups such as Amnesty International, who called the decision "unprecedented" and "the most ruthless illustration yet of how Hong Kong’s National Security Law is weaponized to silence dissent."

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. …

INDIA

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. …

BRAZIL 

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won re-election in 2022 after leaving prison due to the country’s Supreme Court nullifying his conviction on money laundering and corruption charges, citing serious biases in the case against him.

Lula, arrested as part of "Operation Car Wash," 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. 

Fox News gets it totally wrong here: the only official being prosecuted is Lula's opponent, Jair Bolsonaro — the president who has been hounded ever since he claimed that Lula's socialists "won" the 2022 election only through voter fraud. (Obrigado to Sarah Hoyt.)

VENEZUELA

Venezuelan President Nicolás 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 País reported. 

The Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin) allegedly entered Pinero’s house without a search warrant. Another politician, presidential candidate Delsa Solorzano, denounced the arrest, saying that "Nelson is one more political prisoner of this dictatorship, which has taken 300 citizens to jail for thinking differently." …

CAMBODIA

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 "baseless" and urged the country’s authorities to "end their ongoing crackdown against opposition groups."

As I wrote in irony last August:

In conclusion, can't we say that Americans are lucky?

America has finally figured out that people in the West were wrong to demand that the Soviet Union, Communist China, and like régimes should imitate the United States. Instead, the USA should try to become more like a banana republic such as China, Cuba, or Venezuela. …

• Related: Who Else, Besides Donald Trump, Is a Convicted Felon?