The indictment of President Donald Trump and 18 lawyers, aides, and allies by Georgia is part of a sad authoritarian practice of prosecuting leaders and members of the political opposition in mass cases where the suspects have few rights.
For example, Breitbart News reported that the communist regime in Cuba held a mass hearing for 21 protesters and dissenters last year:
“Cuba’s communist government held a trial for 21 people who took to the streets on July 11 to protest communism. The trial ended on Friday, and in it, children and adults with mental health problems were tried together with healthy adults. A prosecutor’s charge from Holgun, in eastern Cuba, was given to Breitbart News and confirmed by people with knowledge of the case. It showed that 21 people, ranging in age from 16 to 59, were being tried together. All of these people are said to have been at the same protest on July 11, and they are all being charged with “sedition.” But the “crimes” in question are very different, including accusations of punching and stoning police officers, filming a protest, and just being there during what the judge in charge called a “tumult” meant to make people think “counterrevolutionary” thoughts.”
Egypt put 170 followers of the removed, elected, and Islamist former president on trial in 2014, and some of them were sentenced to death:
“On Sunday, two Egyptian courts found 170 people guilty of being supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi on charges related to violent attacks last year. This was the country’s latest round of mass trials before the presidential elections this month.”
“The convictions in Cairo and the city of Kafr el-Sheikh in the Nile Delta are the latest in a series of hundreds of Morsi supporters who have been sentenced to death or prison over the past few months.”
At a press meeting Monday night around midnight, Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis said she planned to try all 19 suspects at once, even though one of them, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, has already asked for a federal trial.
