Who will prove to be the defender of democracy in these trials?

In Brazil, supporters of ex-President Jair Bolsonaro, who is on trial before the Constitutional Court for an attempted coup, are facing off against the Brazilian judiciary.

In France, supporters of the French right-wing populist Marine Le Pen, who was convicted of corruption, are protesting against what they consider a "political verdict".

And in South Korea, many people see President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was recently dismissed by South Korea's Constitutional Court, as a "martyr for democracy." Yeol had surprisingly imposed martial law in December 2024 to "protect the country from pro-North Korean anti-state forces."

For Brazilian political scientist Carlos Pereira from the University Fundacao Getulio Vargas, the criticism of Brazil's allegedly biased judiciary is actually a sign of its strength. "Those who lose always accuse the judiciary of being biased and unjust," he told DW.

When Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was convicted and arrested for corruption in 2018, Lula's left-wing supporters........

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