List of people convicted of treason

Some countries have a high constitutional hurdle to conviction for treason, while many countries have less stringent definitions.

This is a list of people convicted of treason.

Armenia

  • Meruzhan Artzruni, Lord Prince of Vaspurakan (? – 369), for conspiring with one of the Great Persian Kings, Shapur II against his liege-lord, Armenian King Arsaces II (Arshak II), whom he betrayed to Persia. He was captured by Arsaces II's son King Papas (Pap) and executed.

Austria

Austria-Hungary

Canada

China

  • Zhou Fohai, for serving in the Wang Jingwei government in the Second World War
  • Chen Gongbo, for serving in the Wang Jingwei government in the Second World War
  • Wang Jingwei, president of the Reorganized National Government of China (puppet government controlled by Japan) in the Second World War

Republic of Congo

Czechoslovakia

Denmark (under the Nazi occupational government)

  • Henrik Kauffmann was charged with grand (high) treason by the Nazi-occupied Danish government, for helping the Allies.

East Germany

England

For those convicted on or after 1 May 1707, see Great Britain and United Kingdom.

Estonia

Fiji

  • George Speight, for plotting the Fiji coup of 2000. Death sentence commuted to life in prison.
  • Ratu Jope Seniloli, incumbent Vice-President (in 2004), for his role in the coup of 2000. Sentenced to four years in gaol; released by a sympathetic government after three months.

Finland

  • Lauri Törni, for having served with the German Army at the end of World War II, later received a presidential pardon

France

Image taken from Trial of Marshal Ney for high treason taken in short-hand at the time of trial, 1816

Germany

Great Britain

For those before 1 May 1707, see England and Scotland. For those convicted on or after 1 January 1801, see United Kingdom

Greece

  • Dimitrios Gounaris, Prime Minister of Greece (1921–1922), convicted of treason in 1922 for the Asia Minor catastrophe. Executed 15 November 1922.
  • Petros Protopapadakis, Minister of Economy in Dimitrios Gounaris' government and later Prime Minister of Greece (1922), convicted of treason for the Asia Minor catastrophe. Executed 15 November 1922.
  • Nikolaos Stratos, Minister of Internal Affairs in Gounaris' government, convicted of treason for the Asia Minor catastrophe. Executed 15 November 1922.
  • Georgios Baltatzis, Minister of Foreign Affairs in Gounaris' government, convicted of treason for the Asia Minor catastrophe. Executed 15 November 1922.
  • Nikolaos Theotokis, Minister of Military Affairs in Gounaris' government, convicted of treason for the Asia Minor catastrophe. Executed 15 November 1922.
  • Georgios Hatzanestis, commanding officer of the Asia Minor and Eastern Thrace Greek army, convicted of treason for the Asia Minor catastrophe. Executed 15 November 1922.
  • Michail Goudas, rear admiral and minister in Gounaris' government, convicted of treason for the Asia Minor catastrophe. Sentenced to life imprisonment.
  • Xenophon Stratigos, major general and minister in Gounaris' government, convicted of treason for the Asia Minor catastrophe. Sentenced to life imprisonment.
  • George Papadopoulos, Greek colonel, leader of a military junta (1967–1973), convicted of treason and jailed for life, died in Korydallos prison 27 June 1999.

Hawaii

The Republic of Hawaii government had one trial for treason after the failed 1895 Counter-Revolution in Hawaii. Those charged were found guilty, but pardoned after serving time in prison.[10]

Hungary

Israel

Japan

  • Ozaki Hotsumi, journalist and Soviet agent (nominally convicted under the Peace Preservation Law)
  • Daisuke Namba, Japanese left-wing activist
  • Kotoku Shusui, Japanese anarchist

Kenya

  • Hezekiah Ochuka, Kenya airforce soldier, for conspiring to overthrow the government of Daniel Moi in 1982

Kuwait

Mexico

Netherlands

  • Anton Mussert, for leading the Dutch puppet regime under Nazi occupation.

New Zealand

  • Patrick Stanley Vaughan Heenan, for passing information to the Japanese during World War II (was not convicted under New Zealand civil law)
  • Hamiora Pere, for fighting against the British government in Te Kooti's War; only person executed for treason in New Zealand

Norway

Pakistan

  • Shakil Afridi, for spying for the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States
  • Hussain Haqqani, for involvement with a secret memo to Admiral Michael Mullen asking for US intervention in changing Pakistan's military and intelligence agencies.
  • Pervez Musharraf, for abrogating and suspending the constitution on 3 November 2007

Poland

For the betrayal of General Stefan Rowecki to the Gestapo:

For betrayal of the Polish People's Republic:

  • Witold Pilecki ("Druh"), death for espionage for the Polish Government-in-exile, executed in 1948, posthumously acquitted in 1990
  • Ryszard Kukliński ("Jack Strong"), escaped to the USA in 1981, sentenced to death in absentia in 1984, in 1990 sentence changed to 25 years of imprisonment, in 1995 sentence cancelled due to search of the 1st President of the Supreme Court, fully pardoned in 1997
  • Adam Kaczmarczyk, death for espionage for MI16, executed in 1969

Russia

Scotland

For those convicted on or after 1 May 1707, see Great Britain and United Kingdom.

South Africa

  • The 1956 Treason Trial was a trial in Johannesburg in which 156 people, including Nelson Mandela, were arrested in a raid and accused of treason in South Africa in 1956.

Soviet Union

For those convicted on or after 25 December 1991, see Russia .

Spain

Sri Lanka

Sweden

Switzerland

  • Jean-Louis Jeanmaire, sentenced to 18 years of prison (released after 12 for good behavior) for leaking information to the Soviet KGB.

Turkey

  • Abdullah Öcalan, life sentence (originally death penalty) for trying to establish a Kurdish state in Turkey.

Ukraine

  • Viktor Yanukovych, found guilty of treason in absentia by a Kyiv court. Yanukovych fled Ukraine to Russia after the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution. He was subsequently impeached and tried for treason in absentia.[11]

United Kingdom

For those before 1 January 1801, see England, Scotland, and Great Britain.
  • John Amery, for trying to recruit soldiers and broadcasting propaganda for Nazi Germany.
  • Roger Casement, for negotiating with Germany to provide arms to Irish revolutionaries during the First World War for use in the Irish Easter 1916 rising; hanged in August 1916.
  • William Comstive, Charles Stanfield, Richard Addy, Benjamin Hanson and eighteen others were tried and convicted for High Treason for revolt in the West Riding of Yorkshire in 1820.
  • William Joyce, alias 'Lord Haw-Haw', for broadcasting Nazi propaganda to the United Kingdom during World War II. Hanged on 3 January 1946. Last person to be executed for treason in the United Kingdom.
  • Members of the British Free Corps: Thomas Haller Cooper and Walter Purdy (death sentences commuted)
  • William Smith O'Brien MP, for his part in leading the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848.
  • Arthur Thistlewood, John Brunt, William Davidson, James Ings, Richard Tidd, Charles Cooper, Richard Bradburn, John Harrison, James Wilson and John Shaw Strange participants of the 1820 Cato Street Conspiracy
  • James Wilson (revolutionary) convicted and executed for High Treason, following his part in the Scottish Insurrection of 1820.
  • Jeremiah Brandreth, Isaac Ludlam and William Turner convicted and executed for High Treason following their part in the Pentrich Revolution of 1817. [12]

United States

  • Philip Vigol and John Mitchell, convicted of treason and sentenced to hanging; pardoned by George Washington; see Whiskey Rebellion.
  • John Fries, the leader of Fries' Rebellion, convicted of treason in 1800 along with two accomplices, and pardoned that same year by John Adams.
  • Governor Thomas Dorr 1844, convicted of treason against the state of Rhode Island; see Dorr Rebellion; released in 1845; civil rights restored in 1851; verdict annulled in 1854.
  • John Brown, convicted of treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1859 and executed for attempting to organize armed resistance to slavery.
  • Aaron Dwight Stevens, took part in John Brown's raid and was executed in 1860 for treason against Virginia.
  • William Bruce Mumford, convicted of treason and hanged in 1862 for tearing down a United States flag during the American Civil War.
  • Walter Allen was convicted of treason on September 16, 1922 for taking part in the 1921 Miner's March with the coal companies and the US Army on Blair Mountain, West Virginia. He was sentenced to 10 years and fined. During his appeal to the Supreme Court he disappeared while out on bail. United Mineworkers of America leader William Blizzard was acquitted of the charge of treason by the jury on May 25, 1922.[13]
  • Max Stephan, a German-born Detroit tavernkeeper, was convicted of treason on July 2, 1942, after the jury deliberated for only one hour and 23 minutes. In April 1942, Stephan harbored and fed at his tavern a German pilot who escaped from a Canadian POW camp.[14] On August 6, Judge Arthur J. Tuttle sentenced Stephan to death by hanging.[15] He was the first man convicted and sentenced to death on a federal treason charge since the Civil War. His sentence was later commuted by President Roosevelt to life in prison.[16]
  • Hans Max Haupt, Walter Otto Froehling and Otto Richard Wergin were convicted of treason and sentenced to death, and Erna Emma Haupt, Lucille Froehling and Kate Martha Wergin were convicted of treason and sentenced to 25 years in prison on November 24 1942, in a joint indictment.[17] All six individuals were charged with treason for giving aid and comfort to the executed German saboteur Herbert Hans Haupt. On appeal, these judgments were reversed and remanded to be retried.[18] Hans Max Haupt was convicted again on June 9, 1944.[19] He was sentenced to life in prison. He appealed again, but the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed this judgement.[20] Walter Otto Froehling and Otto Richard Wergin were sentenced to 5 years in prison on July 22, 1944 as accessories to treason.[21] Hans Max Haupt eventually appealed the case up to the Supreme Court, which sustained the verdict against him.[22]
  • Martin James Monti, United States Army Air Forces pilot, convicted of treason for defecting to the Waffen SS in 1944. He was paroled in 1960.
  • Robert Henry Best, convicted of treason on April 16, 1948 and served a life sentence.
  • Iva Toguri D'Aquino, who is frequently identified by the name "Tokyo Rose", convicted 1949. Subsequently, pardoned by President Gerald Ford.
  • Mildred Gillars, also known as "Axis Sally", convicted of treason on March 8, 1949; served 12 years of a 10- to 30-year prison sentence.
  • Herbert John Burgman, convicted of treason in 1949 during WWII for spreading Nazi propaganda; sentenced to 6-20 years in prison.
  • Tomoya Kawakita, sentenced to death for treason in 1952, but eventually released by President John F. Kennedy to be deported to Japan.

Zambia

  • Steven Lungu, also known as Captain Solo. Sentenced to death for an attempted coup in 1997, he was pardoned in 2010 by President Rupiah Banda.

Zimbabwe

See also

Footnotes

  1. Valode, Philippe (2007). Les Grands traitres de l'histoire. Paris, France: First Edition. p. 233.
  2. Valode, Philippe (2007). Les Grands traitres de l'histoire. Paris, France: First Edition. p. 155.
  3. Valode, Philippe (2007). Les Grands traitres de l'histoire. Paris, France: First Edition. p. 175.
  4. Valode, Philippe (2007). Les Grands traitres de l'histoire. Paris, France: First Edition. p. 112.
  5. Valode, Philippe (2007). Les Grands traitres de l'histoire. Paris, France: First Edition. p. 95.
  6. Valode, Philippe (2007). Les Grands traitres de l'histoire. Paris, France: First Edition. p. 214.
  7. Valode, Philippe (2007). Les Grands traitres de l'histoire. Paris, France: First Edition. p. 229.
  8. Valode, Philippe (2007). Les Grands traitres de l'histoire. Paris, France: First Edition. p. 203.
  9. Conway, Moncure Daniel (1893) [1892]. The Life of Thomas Paine. New York: Knickerbocker Press. p. 375. Archived from the original on 2009-04-18. Retrieved 2006-07-06.
  10. "Prisoners Pardoned". Hawaiian Gazette. Honolulu. January 3, 1896. Retrieved June 20, 2010.
  11. Kudrytski, Aliaksandr. "Ousted Ukrainian Leader Yanukovych Found Guilty of Treason". Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg.
  12. http://www.visitambervalley.co.uk/culture/history-heritage/pentrich-revolution.aspx
  13. http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/205
  14. "Max Stephan Found Guilty as a Traitor". Detroit Free Press. July 3, 1942. p. 1 via Newspapers.com.
  15. "Stephan in Death Cell; Boasts 'I Won't Hang'". Detroit Free Press. August 7, 1942. p. 1 via Newspapers.com.
  16. "Stephan Saved By FDR". Detroit Free Press. July 2, 1943. p. 1 via Newspapers.com.
  17. https://www.leagle.com/decision/194288347fsupp8361668
  18. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1511337/united-states-v-haupt/
  19. The Milwaukee Journal, June 10, 1944, p.6
  20. https://www.leagle.com/decision/1945923152f2d7711654
  21. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/11221045/froehling_change_in_sentences_22_jul/
  22. https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-3/section-3/clause-1/the-haupt-case
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