{"id":31283,"date":"2026-09-03T04:45:34","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T08:45:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=31283"},"modified":"2026-09-03T04:45:34","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T08:45:34","slug":"madagascar-ex-senate-chief-sentenced-to-hard-labour-over-deadly-gen-z-protest-crackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2026\/09\/03\/madagascar-ex-senate-chief-sentenced-to-hard-labour-over-deadly-gen-z-protest-crackdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Madagascar ex-Senate chief sentenced to hard labour over deadly Gen Z protest crackdown"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"ssrcss-vxwoax-ComponentWrapper e1aon0op1\" data-block=\"text\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-126h8e-Spacer e1aon0op0\">\n<div data-testid=\"rich-text\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-nqezkk-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Madagascar&#8217;s former Senate president has been sentenced to 10 years of hard labour over his alleged role in the violent crackdown on youth-led protests that helped bring down the previous government last year.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Richard Ravalomanana, a retired general and close ally of former President Andry Rajoelina, was found guilty of complicity in murder by a court in the capital, Antananarivo, on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Prosecutors accused him of giving instructions to security forces to use violence against demonstrators during the so-called Gen Z protests in September and October 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ravalomanana denied the allegations and said he would appeal against the judgement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-vxwoax-ComponentWrapper e1aon0op1\" data-block=\"links\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-126h8e-Spacer e1aon0op0\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-1gccci3-Stack e1y4nx260\">\n<ul class=\"ssrcss-94r6ik-Stack e1y4nx260\" role=\"list\">\n<li class=\"ssrcss-qzx51b-LinkItem e3eyuya1\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-1gccci3-Stack e1y4nx260\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-7zrqh4-LinkHeadline e3eyuya4\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cj6ne96gx1do\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span aria-hidden=\"false\">From prison to presidential palace: Who is Madagascar&#8217;s new military ruler?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-vxwoax-ComponentWrapper e1aon0op1\" data-block=\"text\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-126h8e-Spacer e1aon0op0\">\n<div data-testid=\"rich-text\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-nqezkk-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The protests began a year ago, initially sparked by anger over persistent power and water shortages, before developing into a broader movement against Rajoelina&#8217;s government.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">At least 22 people were killed and more than 100 injured during the unrest, according to UN figures cited by local media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The protests eventually triggered a political crisis that led to Rajoelina&#8217;s removal from power and the installation of a new administration led by Col Michael Randrianirina.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The crackdown was led by the gendarmerie, where Ravalomanana retained considerable influence at the time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He &#8220;directed violent actions to suppress the demonstrations&#8221;, a state prosecutor said in December 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ravalomanana was removed as Senate president in October, shortly after the protests, and was arrested at his home in December after failing to respond to a summons from the gendarmerie.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He was later placed in pre-trial detention at the high-security Imerintsiatosika prison outside Antananarivo, where he has spent the past seven months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He is among several senior figures associated with Rajoelina&#8217;s former government who have faced legal proceedings since the change of power. Ravalomanana is also facing a separate corruption investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A former national police chief who testified at the trial backed his account, saying Ravalomanana was not part of the operational chain of command and had issued no orders to police, gendarmes or soldiers deployed during the unrest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">His lawyer questioned the evidence linking him directly to the violence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Is there confirmed written or verbal evidence&#8230; to accuse him?&#8221; he asked the court, arguing that prosecutors had failed to produce proof that security officers had received orders from his client.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ravalomanana&#8217;s defence team said it would challenge the verdict in a higher court.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The court dropped a separate allegation of making a death threat after ruling that the case was too old to prosecute.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Known for wearing a cowboy hat and displaying his military medals, Ravalomanana was viewed by protesters as a symbol of authoritarian power.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cz0z3x4n9ypo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\">Madagascar&#8217;s former Senate president has been sentenced to 10 years of hard labour over his alleged role in the violent crackdown on youth-led protests that helped bring down the previous government last year. Richard Ravalomanana, <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2026\/09\/03\/madagascar-ex-senate-chief-sentenced-to-hard-labour-over-deadly-gen-z-protest-crackdown\/\" title=\"Madagascar ex-Senate chief sentenced to hard labour over deadly Gen Z protest crackdown\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[12962,12959,948,12960,12961,12963,12957,927,12958],"class_list":["post-31283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-world","tag-antananarivo","tag-complicity-in-murder","tag-corruption","tag-gen-z","tag-hard-labour","tag-imerintsiatosika-prison","tag-madagascar","tag-protests","tag-richard-ravalomanana","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31283"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31285,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31283\/revisions\/31285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}