List of people convicted of treason

This is a list of people convicted of treason.

Some countries, such as the U.S., have a high constitutional hurdle to conviction for treason, while many countries, especially absolute monarchies and dictatorships, have less stringent definitions.

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 Arshak II, whom he betrayed to Persia. He was captured by Arshak's son King Pap and executed.

Austria

• Count Lajos Batthyány de Németújvár, for involvement in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. Executed by firing squad on the same day as the 13 Martyrs of Arad.

Austria-Hungary

• Nedeljko Čabrinović, for conspiring to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand
• Vaso Čubrilović, for conspiring to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand
• Veljko Čubrilović, for conspiring to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand
• Dragutin Dimitrijević, for conspiring to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand
• Trifko Grabez, for conspiring to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand
• Danilo Ilić, for conspiring to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand
• Cvjetko Popović, for conspiring to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand
• Gavrilo Princip, for assassinating Archduke Franz Ferdinand
• Nazario Sauro, for fighting for Italy in the First World War

Canada

• Louis Riel, Métis leader who opposed Canada's expansion into the west.
• Kanao Inouye, Kamloops-born sergeant in the Imperial Japanese army in World War II, for killing eight Canadian prisoners of war captured at the Battle of Hong Kong.

China

• Zhou Fohai
• Chen Gongbo
• Wang Jingwei

Republic of Congo

• Pascal Lissouba, former President of the Republic of Congo

Czechoslovakia

• Karel Čurda

Denmark

• Henrik Kauffmann

East Germany

• Werner Teske

England

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

Main article: List of people convicted of high treason in England before 1 May 1707

Estonia

• Herman Simm

Fiji

• George Speight, for plotting the Fiji coup of 2000

France

• Robert Brasillach
• Marcel Bucard
• Louis-Ferdinand Céline
• Joseph Darnand, for leading the Vichy French Milice.
• Émile Dewoitine, aviation industrialist sentenced to 20 years forced labour sentence for collaboration.
• Pierre Laval, for being Prime Minister of Vichy France.
• Michel Ney
• Henri Philippe Pétain
• Marie Antoinette
• Louis XVI

Germany

• Adolf Hitler, for his role in the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923
• Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl and Christoph Probst in 1943 for their involvement in the anti Nazi White Rose movement.
• Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, for the attempted assassination of Hitler in the July 20 plot in 1944

Great Britain

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

• Archibald Cameron of Locheil, for his part in the 1745 Jacobite rising
• William Maxwell, 5th Earl of Nithsdale, for supporting the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715
• Thomas Paine, for publishing anti-British revolutionary literature
• Charles Radclyffe, for supporting the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715

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 trason 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, dying in Korydallos prison.

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.

• Charles T. Gulick (1841–1897), former cabinet minister
• Robert William Wilcox (1855–1903), military leader, later delegate to US Congress

Hungary

• Imre Nagy, Prime Minister of Hungary, for leading the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.
• Count Fidel Palffy
• László Rajk
• Sándor Szűcs, international footballer, for defecting.

Israel

• Mordechai Vanunu, for revealing details of Israel's nuclear weapons program to the British press in 1986.
• Meir Tobianski, falsely accused of treason during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Executed by firing squad but pardoned after his death.

Japan

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

Kenya

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

Kuwait

• Alaa Hussein Ali, for heading the Iraqi puppet government during the Gulf War

Mexico

• Agustín de Iturbide, for fighting for the royalists army during the Mexican War of Independence.

Netherlands

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

New Zealand

• Hamiora Pere, for fighting against the British government in Te Kooti's War.

Norway

• Vidkun Quisling, for being Minister President of Nazi-occupied Norway during World War II. The word 'quisling' now means 'traitor'.
• Albert Viljam Hagelin, member of Quislings government.
• Ragnar Skancke, Quislings minister of Church and Educational Affairs.
• Arne Treholt Norwegian diplomat, turned by the KGB

Poland

For the betrayal of General Stefan Rowecki to Gestapo:

• Eugeniusz Swierczewski (“Genes”), executed 1944
• Ludwik Kalkstein ("Hanka"), protected by Gestapo during the war, emigrated to France in 1982
• Blanka Kaczorowska (“Sroka”), as above, emigrated to France in 1971

Russia

• Mikhail Shein
• Leonid Eitingon circa 1953
• Igor Sutyagin (2004) - 15 years for espionage for USA. Exchanged for Russian spies in 2010.
• Valentin Danilov - 14 years for espionage for China
• Aleksandar Georgijevic October, 2009 - FSB claims Aleksandar gathered sensitive information for USA agents. Light sentence due to confession.
• Dzhemal Nakaidze October, 2009 - Russian soldier, convicted of spying for Georgia. Light sentence due to confession (9 years of imprisonment instead of 12 to 20 years listed in the Criminal Code of Russia).

Scotland

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

• Robert Baillie, for involvement in the Rye House Plot
• William Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie, for leading the Raid of Ruthven on King James VI
• Murdoch Stewart, 2nd Duke of Albany
• Patrick Stewart, Earl of Orkney, for usurping King James VI on the Orkney Islands

Soviet Union

• Oleg Penkovsky
• Adolf Tolkachev, worked with CIA, executed 1986
• Gennady Varenik KGB, worked for CIA
• Andrey Vlasov
• Genrikh Yagoda

Spain

• Camilo Torres Tenorio, for leading the independence movement in Ecuador
• Francisco Xavier Mina, for fighting against the Spanish government in the Mexican War of Independence.

Sweden

• Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt, attempted to overthrow the guardian-government of king Gustav IV Adolf with Russian military assistance.
• Johann Patkul, protested the land-recovery project of Charles XI of Sweden and, when unsuccessful, sided with Augustus the Strong and tried to wrest Livonia from Sweden.
• Magdalena Rudenschöld, for taking part in the Armfelt-conspiracy.
• Brita Tott, for exposing military movements to Denmark

Switzerland

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

Sri Lanka

Velupillai Prabhakaran, a former terrorist rebel leader who fought with government for 30 years.

Turkey

• Abdullah Öcalan, life sentence (originally death penalty) for trying to establish a Kurdish State
• Adnan Menderes, treason against the Kemalist State and Constitution; for his rôle in the 1955 Septemvriana

United Kingdom

For those before 1 January 1801, see England, Scotland, and Great Britain.

• James Wilson (revolutionary) convicted and executed for High Treason, following his part in the Scottish Insurrection of 1820.
• Arthur Thistlewood, John Brunt, William Davidson, James Ings and Richard Tidd, participants of the 1820 Cato Street Conspiracy
• 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.
• John Mitchell, Maurice Leyne, Pat Donahue, Thomas McGee, Charles Duffy, Thomas Francis Meagher, Richard O'Gorman, Terrance McManus and Michael Ireland convicted of treason after Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848 under Queen Victoria
• John Amery, for trying to recruit soldiers and broadcasting propaganda for Nazi Germany
• Members of the British Free Corps: Thomas Haller Cooper and Walter Purdy (death sentences commutted)
• 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.
• Participants in the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland: Patrick Pearse, Thomas J. Clarke, Thomas MacDonagh, Joseph Mary Plunkett, Edward (Ned) Daly, William Pearse, Michael O'Hanrahan, John MacBride, Éamonn Ceannt, Michael Mallin, Cornelius Colbert, Seán Heuston, Seán Mac Diarmada, James Connolly, and Thomas Kent were shot by firing squad in May 1916.
• William Joyce, alias 'Lord Haw-Haw', for broadcasting Nazi propaganda to the United Kingdom during World War II

United States

• Philip Vigol and John Mitchell, convicted of treason and sentenced to hanging; pardoned by George Washington; see Whiskey Rebellion.
• 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.
• Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt, all hanged on July 7, 1865 for treason and conspiracy for the Lincoln assassination and conspiracy - by military tribunal.
• Iva Toguri D'Aquino, who is frequently identified with "Tokyo Rose" convicted 1949. Subsequently pardoned by President Gerald Ford.
• Herbert Hans Haupt, German-born naturalized U.S. citizen, was convicted of treason in 1942 and executed after being named as a German spy by fellow German spies defecting to the United States.
• Martin James Monti, United States Army Air Force pilot, convicted of treason for defecting to the Waffen SS in 1944.
• Robert Henry Best, convicted of treason on April 16, 1948 and served a life sentence.
• 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.
• Tomoya Kawakita, sentenced to death for treason in 1952, but eventually released by President John F. Kennedy to be deported to Japan.

Zimbabwe

• Ndabaningi Sithole, for conspiring to kill Robert Mugabe

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