Former Madagascar Senate president sentenced for suppressing protests before 2025 coup

Madagascar’s former Senate president, Richard Ravalomanana, has been sentenced to 10 years of hard labor for his role in suppressing protests that preceded the country’s 2025 coup.

A Malagasy court convicted Ravalomanana, a retired general of the national gendarmerie, of complicity in killings and intentional assaults and injuries, local media reported. His defense has confirmed that it will appeal. Ravalomanana is known for regularly wearing a cowboy hat and proudly displaying his military medals.

The crisis began on Sept. 25, 2025, when young people from Generation Z launched mass protests demanding better public services, including access to water and electricity, along with effective and inclusive governance. Their demands later became openly anti-government, calling for the resignation of President Andry Rajoelina, whom protesters accused of corruption, nepotism and embezzlement of public funds.

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Intensified the repression.

Rajoelina resisted calls to leave office, but the balance shifted after the powerful CAPSAT military unit backed the protesters. The unit overthrew him on Oct. 14. CAPSAT chief General Michael Randrianirina then took power after refusing to join the police and gendarmerie crackdown on the marches, which killed at least 22 people, according to the United Nations.

Young protesters drove the change in government, but Amnesty International said in April that Randrianirina had since “intensified the repression” against Generation Z through arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances. Randrianirina said after the coup that his mandate would last no more than two years and that he would seek a transition ending in a constitutional referendum. Madagascar had previously experienced coups in 1972, 1975 and 2009.

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As a maximum.