Former president Donald Trump has been indicted on four charges relating to his attempts to overturn the result of the 2020 US election.
Mr Trump already faces criminal charges in two other cases, as he campaigns to regain the presidency next year.
Mr Trump was indicted on Tuesday evening on four charges including “conspiracy to defraud” the US relating to his efforts to undo his election loss and subvert the transfer of power in the run-up to the January 6 Capitol riot.
The indictment alleges Mr Trump conspired with six other unnamed individuals to overturn the results.
Prosecutors wrote that Trump knew his claims that the election was fraudulent were false, but repeated them anyway to “create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger and erode public faith in the administration of the election”.
The former president has denied all charges, and has been summoned to appear before a federal magistrate judge in Washington on Thursday August 3.
It is a US first, but has this happened before elsewhere? And which other world leaders have been charges with crimes during or after their time in office?
Brazil
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
The Brazilian president is another politician who was charged with crimes relating to when he was in office. He was president from 2003 to 2011 and was convicted in 2017 of charges of money laundering and corruption. he was sent to jail but the conviction was overturned in 2021. He regained power in January 2023 after winning the general election.
Argentina
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
Scandal hit Argentina more recently, in 2022 when Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, then the Argentinian vice-president, was found guilty of fraud from when she was president from 2007 to 2015.
She was sentenced to six years behind bars and has been slapped with a lifetime ban from serving as a politician ever again.
Croatia
Ivo Sanader
In 2020, the former Croatian prime minister was found guilty of corruption. He was sentenced by judges to eight years in prison and that is where he remains to this day.
France
Jacques Chirac
The late Jacques Chirac was French president from 1995 to 2007 and his time at the top was surrounded with controversy. In 2011 he was convicted of corruption and given a two-year suspended jail sentence. As well as the charges against him relating to his time as president, he was found guilty of influence peddling, breach of trust and embezzlement during his time as the mayor of Paris.
Nicolas Sarkozy
In 2021, Sarkozy became the second former French president to be tried and convicted of corruption and influence peddling. He was sentenced to three years in jail, two of them suspended. He appealed against the sentence and it has not been carried out. In 2023 he was convicted in a second, unrelated corruption trial and was given a one-year sentence, which he was permitted to serve at home while wearing an electronic bracelet.
Germany
Christian Wulff
In 2013 the former German president was put on trial having been accused of “receiving and granting” favours while in office. He was found not guilty in 2014.
