Top 10: Dictators who ruled the longest

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Omar al-Bashir
Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir is the current President of Sudan and the head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi.

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Kim Jong-il
Kim Jong-il is the de facto leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea); the official leader of the country is still his long-deceased father Kim Il-sung, the founder of the state. He is the Chairman of the National Defense Commission, General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, the ruling party since 1948, and the Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army, the fourth largest standing army in the world. In April 2009, North Korea's constitution was amended and now implicitly refers to him as the "Supreme Leader".

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Islam Karimov
Islam Karimov is an Uzbek politician who has been the first President of Uzbekistan since 1990.

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Ayatollah Khamenei
Ayatollah Khamenei is an Iranian politician as well as the figurehead of the Muslim conservative establishment in Iran. He was president of Iran from 1981 to 1989, and has been Supreme Leader of Iran since June 1989 when the Assembly of Experts appointed him to succeed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

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Hu Jintao
Hu Jintao is the current Paramount Leader of the People's Republic of China. He has held the titles of General Secretary of the Communist Party of China since 2002, President of the People's Republic of China since 2003, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission since 2004, succeeding Jiang Zemin as the top leader of fourth generation leadership of the Communist Party of China.