Trump among top world leaders charged with high crimes

The much-indicted septuagenarian former US president Donald Trump is running for president against the incumbent octogenarian Joe Biden in the 2024 race to the White House proving there is still life left in old dogs pushing and pulling 80.

The American constitution allows Trump to be a candidate for president despite four indictments – formal accusations of crime – containing 91 felony charges. In their infinite wisdom, the founding fathers did not expressly exclude convicted felons from the office of president.

In so far as they thought about the problem, they probably concluded that the American people would not vote for a convicted felon to be their president. In light of that they may have thought the risk of having politically motivated prosecutions outweighed the risk of having felons elected president.

The first indictment against Trump is for paying money to a woman to keep her silent in the 2016 presidential election, in breach of campaign penal laws. The alleged breaches of the criminal law appear to be scraping the barrel and should be abandoned.

The second is for the unauthorised retention of classified documents after he left office in 2021. As Trump brought this prosecution on himself and the evidence largely speaks for itself, it should be heard before the presidential election because its outcome is directly relevant to his fitness to be president.

The third and fourth indictments are for attempts to overturn the 2020 election result. They are the most serious and need to be heard before he becomes candidate for president of the Republican Party as the charges are directly relevant to whether he is a fit and proper person to be a candidate for president. If convicted he would be someone with a proven propensity to commit offences to overturn the outcome of presidential elections contrary to the US constitution.

As a Trump victory is on the cards, the US Supreme Court will probably have to decide if it has jurisdiction to consider whether he could take the oath of office if convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for the duration of his term of office. Generally courts do not rule on hypothetical facts, let alone on facts inconsistent with the presumption of innocence, so it is best to wait and see if he is convicted.

Trump is not alone in having to face criminal charges in the hurly burly of 21st century politics across the globe. The gallery of alleged criminals includes former French president Nicholas Sarkozy, Pakistan’s recently deposed prime minister Imran Khan, current Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russia’s long serving President Vladimir Putin.

Sarkozy was convicted of attempting to bribe a judge in 2014 after he left office and his conviction was upheld on appeal to the first tier. He is no longer active in French politics, but he is appealing against conviction to France’s Supreme Court even though he will not actually serve time behind bars.

Khan was convicted of corruption on August 5, 2023 and sentenced to three years imprisonment and banned from holding political office for five years. He appealed against his conviction on the grounds that he did not have a fair trial.

The allegation against him was that he stole gifts worth $500,000 he received while he was prime minister between 2018 and 2022; mostly Rolex watches and jewellery from Arab royals, which according to Pakistani law belong to the state.

Khan has a case to answer because he accepts he sold some of the gifts that should normally have been stored in a treasure-house called the toshakhana. Stealing, however, is out of character for Khan who is from a noble Pakistani family, an Oxford graduate, a former captain of the Pakistan national cricket team and a well-known philanthropist. His good character does not mean he is not guilty; but it does mean that it should be taken into account in his favour in a fair trial in which he is able to test the case against him and call witnesses on his behalf – it’s just not cricket to jail and bar Pakistan’s top cricket captain from politics without hearing his side of the story. Khan’s unfair conviction and ban from holding political office is the best argument in favour of the American system that is geared to prevent politically motivated prosecutions.

Netanyahu is charged with criminal offences for receiving gifts corruptly. The gifts given to him were Havana cigars and vintage champagne. There are many criticisms one can level at Netanyahu but being partial to cigars and champagne is not one of them.

But the Israel attorney general claims this was a continuous supply over 20 years worth $198,000; if you ask me that is as much evidence that he has rich generous friends as it is of anything more sinister.

There are two other more classic corruption allegations against Netanyahu basically for carrying out government favours to media organisations in exchange for favourable media coverage.

Netanyahu denies any impropriety but the interesting thing about his case, from which Trump can draw some comfort, is that the cases began while Netanyahu was in office and continued after he left and still continue after he won the most recent election in Israel in November 2022. Apparently he is entitled to continue as prime minister even after conviction, but not if his conviction is upheld on appeal.

Last but by no means least there is Russian President Vladimir Putin against whom an arrest warrant was issued by the International Criminal Court for the unlawful deportation of children and other civilians from Ukraine and he is liable to be arrested if he travels to countries that are state parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

His prosecution is not going to happen unless there is regime change in Russia; even if that happens, Russia is no more likely to surrender Putin for trial by the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands than the US and Britain are likely to surrender George W Bush and Tony Blair for their illegal war on Iraq in 2003.

In any case, the US is not a state party to the Rome Statute, which theoretically means Putin could visit a newly-elected Trump in the White House for a repeat of their three hour tête-à-tête in Finland in 2018. The fear in Ukraine and among European hawks if Trump wins the presidency is that he will sell Ukraine down the river like he did Afghanistan in 2020.

Alper Ali Riza is a king’s counsel in the UK and a retired part time judge