Domestic
The Right of the Twisted
Four suspected perpetrators of the murder of Haingotiana and Stéphanie died during a crime scene reconstruction. According to the official version, they allegedly attempted to seize a police officer's weapon and resist law enforcement, forcing officers to shoot them. Does this official account reflect the true facts, or does it conceal a summary execution? If the latter, what would be the reason? Is it a result of the understandable anger of police officers facing an odious act, or a strategy to silence these criminals to prevent them from revealing even more serious wrongdoings? Who organizes the leak of videos apparently recorded during police investigations, and for what purpose? Some observers point to the incongruous nature of these deaths in terms of human rights. However, there are also numerous reactions on social media favorable to police, arguing that these criminals received the fate they deserved, even in the case of summary execution. This approval highlights the growing lack of consideration Malagasy people have for Justice, whose flaws corrupt in both literal and figurative senses an institution meant to be the bulwark of citizens. The judicial system is increasingly unworthy of trust, allowing delinquents and criminals "generous" toward magistrates and ministers to slip through the net. This also explains the proliferation of the fitsaram-bahoaka phenomenon, with the population preferring to take justice into their own hands. The corruption of justice is not, however, a phenomenon of the present time, as during the era of Malagasy Royalty, an arrangement with executioners already allowed varying the dose of poison during the tangena ordeal. Throughout all times and places, corruption has always favored the variable geometry of Justice and a twisted application of Law. "According to whether you are powerful or wretched, Court judgments will render you white or black," La Fontaine taught in the 17th century. In Madagascar, practices of injustice have been observed for decades, as reflected by numerous international indicators and reports, whether regarding corruption perception by Transparency International or justice perception in Afrobarometer surveys. According to the Rule of Law Index evaluating the level of rule of law, Madagascar ranks 112th out of 143 countries with a score of 0.43/1, far behind countries like Denmark (0.90), Japan (0.78), France (0.72), but also Namibia (0.61), Mauritius (0.60), or Senegal (0.60). These are objective indicators to silence those who have claimed for years to be working toward cleaning up the Malagasy judicial system, with the same credibility they have when asserting the end of power cuts. At the criminal level, abuses have been an open secret for decades: fabrication of cases to incriminate the innocent; corruption during entrance exams for the National School of Magistracy and Registries (ENMG); incongruous prison releases of convicted persons; impunity for delinquents who know how to join the ruling camp at the right time or who grease the right palms to benefit from tolerance, etc. Names remain attached to cases whose handling, or rather the lack of professional handling by Justice, leaves one perplexed, to mention only Raissa Razaivola, Herilaza Imbiky, Tiana Razafimahefa, or Romy Voos. There is also questioning about the appointment of deputy Sylvestre Mahavitara to head the Parliamentary Investigation Commission responsible for examining public finance management, a few months after the presidential pardon that allowed his prison release in October 2025. He had nevertheless been flagged in 2024 by the Anti-Corruption Unit for financial misconduct within the health ministry. In the field of Public Law, the landscape is hardly more glorious. The High Constitutional Court (HCC) stands out for decisions almost always in favor of the Executive, trampling on judicial independence, which is nonetheless a fundamental principle of democracy. Typical example: electoral fraud endorsed by the rejection of well-founded requests with systematic and scandalous "azo raisina fa tsy mitombina." The integrity of magistrates raises questions. In any case, what kind of integrity can one expect from a magistrate if he has paid an exorbitant "tuition" to enter the ENMG and feels authorized to "act" to recoup his investment once in office. Magistrates swarm in an ocean of corporatism that favors impunity and silence, leaving scoundrels to operate with complete freedom.
Source: Madagascar Tribune