What's the difference between perjury and treason?

Perjury


Definition:

  • (v.) False swearing.
  • (v.) At common law, a willfully false statement in a fact material to the issue, made by a witness under oath in a competent judicial proceeding. By statute the penalties of perjury are imposed on the making of willfully false affirmations.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Special prosecutors investigating Park’s relationship with her longtime confidante , Choi Soon-sil, had demanded Lee’s arrest on charges of bribery, embezzlement and perjury.
  • (2) In his closing speech to the jury on Monday, prosecutor Alex Prentice said the charge of perjury was extremely serious.
  • (3) The special prosecutor’s office on Wednesday asked the court to issue warrants to arrest Cho and a former presidential chief of staff on suspicion of abuse of power and perjury.
  • (4) The other part of it is the possibility of perjury, which is punishable by law for anybody else.
  • (5) They cite a unanimous 1973 Supreme court case, Bronston vs US, that dealt with the perjury conviction of movie producer Samuel Bronston.
  • (6) Given powerful evidence against the companies, OPIC at first refused them compensation, and the Justice Department indicted two mid-level ITT operatives for perjury.
  • (7) The 46-year-old politician, who was a member of the Scottish parliament for eight years, was convicted of committing perjury when he convinced a libel jury in August 2006 that the Sunday tabloid had lied about his adultery and visits to a Manchester sex club.
  • (8) .He was convicted on five of six elements of the perjury charge.
  • (9) In its report , the IPCC stated that Metcalf’s note “in essence acknowledges, at least in respect of some of the plaintiffs, that there may have been perjury by officers”.
  • (10) Her son's godfather is Jonathan Aitken, the former Tory minister who was jailed for perjury in 1990s.
  • (11) Gail Sheridan, who was prosecuted but cleared of perjury last month, told scores of reporters and supporters outside the court that her husband would resume his political life after he was released.
  • (12) The only waiting crowds were journal ists, and there were no impassioned speeches: indeed, bizarrely for Lord Archer, free after serving half of a four-year sentence for perjury and perverting the course of justice, there were no speeches at all.
  • (13) Strathclyde police said Coulson was detained in London on Wednesday morning for questioning in connection with evidence the former News of the World editor gave during Sheridan's own trial for perjury in December 2010.
  • (14) In addition the Respect leader called on the director of public prosecutions to charge Shah with perjury over evidence she gave in the trial of her mother, who was found guilty of murder after poisoning an abusive partner with arsenic.
  • (15) Andy Coulson , David Cameron's former director of communications, has been detained by police investigating alleged perjury at the trial of the Scottish socialist politician Tommy Sheridan.
  • (16) In one month alone in 1999 Clifford helped broker three stories which dominated the headlines – Lord Archer's perjury, Cherie Blair's pregnancy and sexual allegations against Gary Glitter.
  • (17) During Sheridan's perjury trial, the accuracy of the NoW's stories about him in October and November 2004, which provoked his defamation action, came under sustained attack.
  • (18) But after sitting through 44 days of evidence and listening to 69 witnesses, the jury of 12 women and two men decided that Sheridan was guilty of a single charge of perjury, which was broken down into five allegations.
  • (19) Jonathan Aitken v the Guardian, 1997 In one of the most spectacular collapses in legal history, the former cabinet minister was imprisoned for perjury and perverting the course of justice after it emerged he had lied under oath about who had paid for a weekend stay at the Ritz hotel in Paris.
  • (20) The Sun faces a significant bill for court costs, to be determined at a later date, and it is possible that Mahmood could be tried for perjury.

Treason


Definition:

  • (n.) The offense of attempting to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance, or of betraying the state into the hands of a foreign power; disloyalty; treachery.
  • (n.) Loosely, the betrayal of any trust or confidence; treachery; perfidy.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) His reports alleged active, sustained and covert collusion to subvert the election which, if confirmed, could constitute treason.
  • (2) It will be payback time, after Mutharika and five other ministers were arrested and charged with treason for trying to block her ascent.
  • (3) Instead of dealing with a political problem, China has sought confrontation and control – threatening new national security laws that outlaw treason .
  • (4) The protester was later identified as the Rev Paul Williamson, who once tried to charge an earlier archbishop of Canterbury with high treason for ordaining female priests.
  • (5) December 5, 2013 10.21pm GMT Mandela was arrested in 1956 for "high treason" against the state, in a case that concluded without conviction.
  • (6) Arrested last year on suspicion of spying for arch-enemy Armenia, the couple also face treason charges in a separate case.
  • (7) But a Conservative MP who recently wrote to the Metropolitan police to call for a criminal investigation into the Guardian, accused the newspaper of potential treason.
  • (8) In addition to tax evasion and illegal business activities, she has also been charged with treason, for allegedly spying for Armenia.
  • (9) In a statement to a Senate judiciary committee he accused the British actor of coming “perilously near to treason” against the United States.
  • (10) On Monday the Sunni Ittehad Council, an umbrella group representing followers of the moderate Barelvi school of Islam , demanded Hassan be tried for treason.
  • (11) Pakistan's official commission investigating Bin Laden's presence in the country last year recommended that Afridi be tried for treason.
  • (12) Musharraf was dramatically diverted to a military hospital on 2 January after feeling a "heaviness" in his chest while he was driving to his treason trial.
  • (13) Everyone who happens to threaten or is perceived to be threatening his position is accused of committing a treasonous act, even if he doesn’t prove it.
  • (14) But pro-European presidential candidate Petro Poroshenko, known as the "chocolate king," who currently leads in the polls, said on Thursday that any delay of the elections would be "treason" and would not happen no matter the circumstances.
  • (15) On Sunday, appearing on the CBS talk show Face the Nation, former air force general and NSA and CIA chief Michael Hayden called Snowden a traitor and accused him of treason.
  • (16) Most were men and most had been convicted of murder, although Thomas and Albert also executed some prisoners who had been convicted of treason.
  • (17) But if that has turned not out to be true – if it is less and less accepted in rightward-drifting Israeli society that there can be such a thing as non-political information, and B’Tselem’s traditional activities are dismissed as treason – what point is there in trying any more?
  • (18) It is believed that Dokuchayev and Mikhailov face treason charges, which carry a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
  • (19) Whenever we had a special campaign or an important political case - for example, the treason trial - we received financial assistance from sympathetic individuals and organisations in the western countries.
  • (20) "Generals like those in charge of Ilovaysk should be imprisoned for treason," said Skillt.