Paul Maillot Rafanoharana, an embarrassing prisoner between France and Madagascar

Will Madagascar comply with the opinion of the United Nations working group on arbitrary detention requesting the release of the former Franco-Malagasy gendarmerie officer, Paul Maillot Rafanoharana sentenced to twenty years in prison in December 2021 for alleged coup attempt with the intention of assassinating President Andry Rajoelina?

One month after the official publication of the opinion adopted following an investigation carried out by independent experts, silence continues to prevail in Antananarivo. The UN body was contacted in 2022 by the family of Paul Maillot. “You will be informed in due time,” responds the Minister of Justice, Benjamin Alexis Rakotomandimby, requested by The World by specifying that the legal process concerning the Apollo 21 file – the name given to the case – is closed and that the decision is not its sole responsibility.

Reserve also remains in place on the French side. “France has taken note of the opinion given on the case of Paul Maillot and will be attentive to the measures likely to be taken by the Malagasy authorities. His situation is subject to regular monitoring by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for consular protection. comments a diplomatic source soberly.

The lawyers of the 61-year-old former soldier, detained for thirty-seven months in a windowless cell measuring 2 m by 4 m in the isolation section of Tsiafahy prison, described as a “prison hell” by Amnesty International, however, intend to take advantage of this development to bring to light the situation of their client whose innocence they have always pleaded and denounced the irregularities of the procedure which led to his conviction.

“Brain” of the affair?

“This opinion is not coercive but it weighs on the reputation of States. When a country lives on a drip of external financing [ comme Madagascar]can we accept that its prison practices are thus called into question by the United Nations? »asks M^e Pierre-Olivier Sur, hoping at least to be able to quickly complete the transfer request requested since 2022 under the cooperation agreements between the two countries.

Paul Maillot Rafanohara was arrested on July 20, 2021 with twenty other people. Among them, French colonel Philippe François and a former employee of the Central Bank, Aina Razafindrakoto, with whom he was associated in a gold trading company, a former prime minister Victor Ramahatra, five generals, as well as his wife Voahangy Andrianandrianina , still incarcerated today, and whose state of health is considered critical.

Considered as the ” brain “ of the case, the ex-gendarme received the heaviest sentence during the verdict rendered in December 2021. Philippe François, Saint-Cyrian like him, was sentenced to ten years, but his repatriation, facilitated by pressure from the military hierarchy and the support committee chaired by the writer and former ambassador Jean-Christophe Rufin, was obtained in June 2023.

According to Paris, the dual nationality of Paul Maillot Rafanoharana explains the stagnation of the file despite the regular interviews between Emmanuel Macron and his Malagasy counterpart at the Elysée. “We do not discuss court decisions, but Paul Maillot should be able to benefit from the same treatment [que Philippe François]. He is a French officer, a person who is committed to the interest of his country. recalls General Luc Beaussant, general delegate of the La Saint-Cyrienne association which brings together former students of the school. The Franco-Malagasy was trained there from 1984 to 1987, in the same promotion as the former chief of staff of the armed forces, François Lecointre (2017-2021).

Diplomatic advisor to Andry Rajoelina

More than a simple officer, he is also an intermediary that the French government used in its bilateral relationship with Madagascar at the time when Andry Rajoelina, who became head of the country following a putsch in 2009, was banned from the international community – he led the country for the first time as president of the transition from 2009 to 2014 then was elected in 2019. Nicolas Sarkozy, then master of the Elysée, is in favor of normalization. Paul Maillot will be the man for the job.

The former gendarme, converted to business, sails between France and Madagascar where he has only reconnected with his roots for a few years. At the head of an IT company, he has relocated part of his activities to the Big Island and wants to be useful to this country whose immense poverty he discovered. At the unofficial request of the Elysée, he became diplomatic advisor to Andry Rajoelina in order to work for the recognition of the regime by foreign chancelleries.

France was the first to take the plunge by receiving the new strongman at the Quai d’Orsay in May 2011. But the adventure was cut short. He quickly clashed with certain members of the entourage of the killer of Marc Ravalomanana whom he considered toxic for the interests of the country and threw in the towel after three months, as he explained in an interview given to The Madagascar ExpressMay 16, 2011. Despite this disappointment, his life will no longer be far from the circles of influence where the future of the country is discussed and he remains an interlocutor of the French diplomats who succeed one another in post in Antananarivo.

A fervent Catholic, who became advisor to the influential Archbishop of Antananarivo, Odon Razanakolona, ​​from 2015 he led a think tank called the Group of Strategic and Sectoral Experts (GE2S). Made up of around ten personalities from the senior civil service or the private sector, the group meets discreetly twice a month at the home of one of them.

Mamy Ravatomanga, the shadow advisor

A character with a unique background who stands out in Malagasy circles, Paul Maillot is nevertheless not considered an opponent. When Andry Rajoelina, after being forced to step aside at the end of the transition regime (2009-2013), returned to power through the ballot boxes at the end of 2018, he was once again asked to join the circle of presidential advisors. He declines, arousing the incomprehension of Paris which continues to bet on the former entertainment entrepreneur. A sign of this continuity, it is Nicolas Sarkozy who will be mandated by Emmanuel Macron to attend the inauguration.

At the end of 2019, while the Emergence Madagascar plan promised for “to catch up in five years with what has not been done since independence” is still waiting, Andry Rajoelina’s chief of staff, Lova Hasinirina Ranoromaro, is turning to GE2S. The creation of a task force to help the president get out of the looming quagmire is under study. The one who is today its spokesperson can move forward with confidence. His father was one of the members of the small group who gave him a six-page note, consulted by The World and in which avenues of reform and attacks against bad governance which thrives against a backdrop of “nepotism and favoritism”.

The outbreak of the Covid-19 crisis postponed discussions for a year but at the end of 2020, in an even more degraded economic and social context, a ministerial reshuffle became relevant again. And the name of Paul Maillot is circulating on the list of prospects. The local press echoes it. “What interest would I have had in assassinating the one who wanted to make me prime minister? “, will question the future convict during his trial.

A few months after the verdict, the leak on social networks of three verbal notes sent in January 2021 by one of the president’s very close advisors attests to the exchanges which took place at the highest summit of the State to replace the irremovable Prime Minister Christian Ntsay, continuously reappointed since 2018 and still in office today.

“Arbitrary deprivation of liberty”

In these brief recordings addressed to Paul Maillot, Romy Voos Andrianarisoa, who has since been swept up in a corruption scandal while seeking to obtain a bribe from the British company Gemfields, discusses her discussions with the PRM ( President of the Malagasy Republic): “I believe that your name has been submitted from several angles and in the writings that I submitted as well, but I do not know exactly what the PRM thinks of this proposal and until we get rid of the stranglehold of PB, it will be he who imposes the PM”. BP for “blue stone” is the translation of the Malagasy Ravatomanga and designates the sulphurous businessman, Mamy Ravatomanga, shadow advisor, powerful to the point that he is often described as vice-president to mean that, in fact, he is the one who directs the country.

Discussions between Romy Voos and Paul Maillot will continue until June 2021, according to testimonies from several sources before his arrest on July 20. A few weeks later, the first advisor of the French embassy, ​​close to Philippe François, had to hastily leave Antananarivo.

In its opinion, the UN body not only calls for the immediate release of the former Saint-Cyr officer, it also calls for reparation to be granted to him in the form of compensation and invites the Malagasy government to open a “thorough and independent investigation into the circumstances” having led to this “arbitrary deprivation of liberty”.