Donald Trump made the history on Thursday as he become the first former President to be criminally convicted after found guilty by a Manhattan jury of 34 counts of falsifying business records linked to hush money payments to a porn star.
But likened to his counterparts around the world, Trump’s not alone, joining a lengthy list of leaders who have been found guilty of crimes, ranging from corruption to abuse of power.
Here are some other former leaders that have convicted by their countries:
Cristina Fernandez; Argentina
Former President of Argentina Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who run the country from 2007 to 2015, was sentenced to six years in jail and barred from holding public office in 2022, after being convicted in a billion-dollar fraud case.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva; Brazil
Brazil’s incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who previously led the country from 2003 to 2010, was imprisoned in 2018 for corruption.
Ivo Sanader; Croatia
Former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, who served from 2003 to 2009, has been in prison since 2011, having been extradited after exiting the country and sentenced to prison in a series of convictions.
Hosni Mubarak; Egypt
Former dictator Hosni Mubarak was sentenced to three years in jail in 2015 for embezzling state funds. Mubarak, who was ousted during the Arab Spring in 2011, was also convicted for initiating the killings of protesters—though he was acquitted of that crime and released in 2017.
Jacques Chirac – Nicolas Sarkozy; France
Former President Jacques Chirac, who served from 1995 to 2007, was handed a suspended two-year prison sentence in 2022 after being convicted of corruption.
Nicolas Sarkozy, who succeeded Chirac as President from 2007 to 2012, was handed a three-year prison sentence in 2021 with two years suspended and one served under house arrest after found guilty of bribing a judge to access confidential information involving another trial.
Mikheil Saakashvili; Georgia
Former President Mikheil Saakashvili is serving a six-year jail sentence after being arrested in 2021. He had been convicted for abuse of power, including for ordering police to beat up an opposition member of parliament in 2005.
Moshe Katsav – Ehud Olmert – Benjamin Netanyahu ; Israel
Moshe Katsav, who served as President from 2000 to 2007, was sentenced in 2011 to seven years in jail for raping an aide while he was a minister in the 1990s and sexually harrassing two women while he was President.
Ehud Olmert, who was Prime Minister from 2006 to 2009, was sentenced to 27 months in prison in 2016 for fraud. He was released in 2017 after serving part of his sentence.
Country’s current Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was indicted in 2019 in a series of charges including for fraud, bribery, and breach of trust, and his trial continues.
Silvio Berlusconi; Italy
Silvio Berlusconi, who was a four-time Primce Minister, has been charged in over 30 criminal cases, though he only had one lasting conviction. He was found guilty in 2013 of paying for sex with a minor.
He was also absolved of tax evasion, bribing judges, and corruption—though in some instances the clearings came after his administration changed the law such that his initial charges no longer constituted a crime.
Najib Razak; Malaysia
Najib Razak, who served as the Prime Minister from 2009 to 2018, was found guilty of corruption in the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal and sentenced to 12 years in jail.
Aung San Suu Kyi; Myanmar
Aung San Suu Kyi, who had been the State Counsellor since 2016, was convicted of numerous charges including corruption, election fraud, and breaching a state secrets law.
She is serving a 27-year jail sentence for the charges, and was moved to house arrest in April.
Imran Khan; Pakistan
Imran Khan, former Prime Minister of South Asian country, is currently in prison on convictions of corruption and leaking state secrets. The convictions, which came ahead of a national election in April, was denounced by Khan and his supporters as “politically motivated.”
Alberto Fujimori; Peru
Alberto Fujimori, who served as President from 1990 to 2000, was released from jail last year after spending over 15 years imprisoned for human rights violations and abuse of power.
Jacob Zuma; South Africa
Former President Jacob Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in jail in 2021 for contempt of court, after he denied to testify during an probe into corruption in his administration.
Lee Myung-bak – Park Geun-hye ; South Korea
From President Lee Myung-bak was sentenced to 17 years in prison in 2020 for bribery and embezzlement. However, he had his jail term cut brief after being granted a acquittal in 2022 by present President Yoon Suk-yeol.
Park Geun-hye was sentenced to 15 years in jail for bribery and coercion. She was also acquitted in 2021.
Omar Hassan al-Bashir; Sudan
Former President Omar Hassan al-Bashir was sentenced to two years in a social reform facility after being convicted of corruption.
He is also facing an ongoing trial linked to a 1989 coup that brought him to power for which he could, if found guilty, receive the death sentence.
Chen Shui-bian; Taiwan
Chen Shui-bian, whose served as the President from 2000 to 2008, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2009 for embezzlement, money laundering, and bribery, but later had his sentence reduced to 20 years through appeal.
Thaksin Shinawatra – Yingluck; Thailand
Thaksin Shinawatra, who served as Prime Minister from 2001 to 2006 and fled after he was ousted in a military coup, was convicted in absentia of abuse of power. He was detained upon his return from self-exile last year, but was released on parole in February.
His sister Yingluck was sentenced to five years in jail in 2017 for criminal negligence—the court found that she had mishandled a rice subsidy scheme that led to billions of dollars in losses. However, while still living abroad to avoid detention, she was cleared in March.
