Madagascar: civil society wants the release of a teacher denouncing aid embezzlement
The teacher Jeannot Randriamanana had denounced the diversion of food aid intended for the victims of cyclone Batsirai in Mananjary.
Here, residents of this city in southeastern Madagascar, on February 10, after the passage of the cyclone.
© Viviane Rakotoarivony, AP
Text by: Laure Verneau
3 mins
In Madagascar, several civil society organizations are calling for the release of a teacher from the town of Mananjary, in the southeast of the island, devastated by cyclone Batsirai in February.
The teacher had denounced embezzlement of food aid in several Facebook posts and alerted public opinion.
Civil society denounces an instrumentalization of the law on cybercrime in order to silence any dissonant voice.
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From our correspondent in Antananarivo,
Jeannot Randriamanana was placed under a warrant of committal on March 3, then sentenced to two years in prison on March 17, the same day of his trial.
This teacher at Mananjary college is also a member of a civil society platform that defends the socio-economic rights of vulnerable populations, as well as a political party that is now part of the opposition.
Jeannot Randriamanana is known locally for having denounced in publications on Facebook, at the end of March, the diversion of emergency food aid intended
for the victims of cyclone Batsirai
which he would have witnessed.
But it is not for this reason that he is now behind bars.
"
As a human rights defender, he carried out investigations in the districts of Nosy Varika concerning schools, because he works particularly on children's rights,
" explains Volahery Andriamanatenasoa, director of programs at the Center for Research and support for development alternatives - Indian Ocean (CRAAD-OI)
,
an association that the teacher knew well because its own platform is a local branch of CRAAD-OI.
Jeannot Randriamanana warned of the poor state of school infrastructure, with children studying on the ground among others, and published the results of his investigation on his Facebook account.
»
"
Ignorance of the role and duties of a human rights defender
"
The teacher was then prosecuted for defamation and usurpation of the function of journalist by the deputy of Nosy Varika and the local district chief: the two considered that he was not authorized to carry out such investigations and that he unfair prejudice to the authorities.
“
As his defender, I must say that all these accusations are based only on ignorance or misunderstanding of the role and duties of a human rights defender,
reacts his lawyer, Me Denis Franconio
.
No evidence and charge have been constituted in this file.
We demand
his immediate
and unconditional
release .
»
Lalatiana Rakotondrazafy, Minister of Culture and Communication, said she did not want to comment on ongoing legal proceedings.
“
From a more personal point of view, I find the sentence high, but if that's what the penal code provides, I'm not going against it.
»
For Ketakandriana Rafitoson, the executive director of Transparency International (TI), “
this is an instrumentalization of the law on cybercrime to protect the most powerful
”
.
Common joke around the prison
Since the state of health emergency linked to covid-19, declared in 2020, more and more Internet users have been worried and prosecuted for their comments made on the web.
So much so that it has become a common joke: on social networks we regularly comment on publications with the word "
gagazo
", which is a diminutive of "
mangahazo
" which means cassava in Malagasy... the meal served in prison.
A way of saying “
pay attention to what is said
”, under cover of humour.
The most active whistleblowers are those who are not on Malagasy soil.
In Madagascar, they have a hard life: from Dr Stéphane Ralandison, who had criticized
the therapeutic effectiveness of Covid Organics
(a drink which, according to the President of Madagascar Andry Rajoelina, could prevent and cure the disease) on Linkedin posts in 2020, in through Clovis Razafimalala, environmental activist.
The latter who had denounced cuts of rosewood on his peninsula east of Madagascar in 2018: all were worried or condemned.
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Madagascar
Justice
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