The SMM strongly reiterates that a magistrate cannot be sanctioned for legitimately refusing to execute informal and untraceable orders. Tensions are escalating within Madagascar's judicial system. Following the suspension notification of three magistrates from the Anti-Corruption Unit (PAC) of Antananarivo's first instance court on August 28, the Syndicate of Magistrates of Madagascar (SMM) has entered into resistance. This highly sensitive matter is dominating judicial news this week, shaking the Justice Ministry. In an official and incisive statement signed by its general secretary, Mila Ilaina Rabeavotra, the SMM sounds the alarm. "Hierarchical subordination cannot in any way mean blind obedience," the statement emphasizes. After thorough investigations by its bureau, the syndicate claims to possess serious evidence demonstrating that the charges against the magistrates are not actually attributable to them. According to the organization, these accusations serve as a smokescreen to mask serious pressures and informal instructions completely lacking traceability, whose manifest objective would be to influence or divert the normal course of judicial procedures within this specialized jurisdiction.

Institutional Persecution

During a highly anticipated media appearance, SMM president Mbitanarivo Andriantsihorisoa provided crucial clarifications on this burning issue. He reaffirmed the syndicate's unwavering commitment to situations likely to undermine judicial independence and magistrates' ability to exercise impartially. "The problem arises precisely around non-respect of this hierarchical subordination principle, not from our colleagues, but from hierarchical authorities," he stressed, openly pointing to institutional persecution. The SMM strongly recalls that a magistrate cannot be sanctioned for legitimately refusing to execute informal and untraceable orders. Furthermore, the procedure against their peers is deemed entirely irregular. According to the syndicate, fundamental legal provisions were not respected, in contempt of the new magistracy statute. The latter establishes essential guarantees, imperatively requiring the hierarchy to gather observations, whether oral or written, from concerned magistrates before any precautionary suspension measure—a step curiously omitted in this case.

Legal Action

Facing this manifest attempt to instrumentalize justice, the SMM does not intend to limit itself to indignant press releases. The union has officially announced it will take concrete measures by filing a voluntary intervention request to ensure full, complete, and rigorous defense for the three unjustly targeted magistrates. Parallel to this legal action, the syndicate launches a pressing and solemn appeal to all judicial bodies, particularly those assigned to the public prosecutor's office: exercise absolute vigilance and categorically refuse execution of orders lacking any written documentation. In this context, the SMM directly addresses the Justice Minister, in her capacity as chief of the public prosecutor's office, urgently calling her to strictly respect guarantees provided by the new statute and ethical rules governing instructions. In any case, the SMM reaffirms its visceral attachment to an independent, upright, and impartial judiciary, while solemnly condemning all observed abuses. This explosive affair at Antananarivo's PAC thus highlights, with particular acuity, persistent tensions between legitimate exercise of hierarchical power and the sacred imperative of judicial impartiality.