Madagascar police arrest suspects plotting to kill the president

Last updated on September 11th, 2021 at 07:56 am

Police, this week, in Madagascar arrested six people suspected of plotting to assassinate the President. This development follows what officials in the Indian Ocean island nation term “a months-long investigation”.

A French citizen is among the six suspects arrested over a failed plot to murder Madagascar’s President Andry Rajoelina and several other top political figures.

The move was intended to dip the nation into a state of political turmoil and frenzy.

“Two of them are bi-national – Malagasy and French – while three others are Malagasy,” the public security minister, Rodellys Fanomezantsoa Randrianarison, said late on Thursday.

Madagascar has had a history of political violence – with coups and unrest being normal since its independence from France in 1960. 

The former coup leader, Andry Rajoelina, was declared president in 2019 after a toughly contested election and a constitutional court challenge from his rival – who claimed fraud and rigging.

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“According to the evidence at hand, these individuals had made a plan for the elimination and neutralisation of a large number of people including the head of state,” said the attorney general, in a statement.

The arrests were made on Tuesday. He, however, added that investigations were still ongoing. 

The official did not lay out details on the extent of the plot and how far it had advanced when the suspects were finally caught. 

It merits a mention that the attorney general’s statement did not specify the nationality of any foreign citizen allegedly involved.

An adviser to the president, Patrick Rajoelina, said two of those arrested were previously serving in the French military.

“The foreigner hid all his harmful schemes behind his business activity,” he said.

It was also said that police had relevant information “for a few months”. They, however, finally decided to make simultaneous arrests in different locations and seized weapons and money and weapons.