Roland Hubert “Lôla” Rasoamaharo, general manager and owner of La Gazette de la Grande Île newspaper, was arrested in 2023 and sentenced to five years in jail for extortion, defamation, and death threats against a businesswoman. In March 2024, he was sentenced to an additional two years for “attempted escape” from prison, a charge denied by his lawyer.
Colleagues told CPJ that they believed Rasoamaharo was targeted for his journalism. Days before his arrest, his outlet published an article that raised questions about President Andry Rajoelina’s re-election bid. Rasoamaharo, 72, is being held at Antanimora prison in the capital Antananarivo.
Rasoamaharo regularly published editorials critical of the government, his phone was targeted with Predator spyware, and his newspaper is known for its critical stance toward Rajoelina, who was re-elected in November 2023 amid protests over alleged irregularities.
On March 24, 2023, gendarmerie officers arrested Rasoamaharo while on his way home, searched his vehicle and cell phone, and took him to the Antananarivo Court of First Instance, Hery Rakotondrazaka, a photographer for La Gazette de la Grande Île, told CPJ and the newspaper reported. The prosecutor remanded Rasoamaharo to Antanimora prison on charges of attempted extortion, defamation, insult, and threat, news reports said.
On June 13, 2023, Rasoamaharo was sentenced to five years in prison, fined 10 million ariary (US$2,200), and ordered to pay an additional 20 million ariary (US$4,400) in damages on charges of extortion, defamation, and death threats.
The charges followed a complaint by businesswoman Victoire Brigitte Razaka, accusing Rasoamaharo of trying to extort money from her, threatening to publish defamatory content about her, and threatening her life, following a land dispute.
On March 26, 2023, Razaka told a news conference that Rasoamaharo had sought to make her pay 885,000,000 ariary (US$196,000) in connection with the dispute, published denigrating remarks about her on Facebook, attacked her in graffiti around Antananarivo, and had third parties pressure her into paying him. Rasoamaharo’s lawyers rejected the accusations.
On March 30, 2023, La Gazette de la Grande Île’s offices were raided, its computers confiscated, and its printing operations closed, as authorized by the court, in relation to a complaint by the national water and electricity company, Jirama, over unpaid bills dating from 2016. The newspaper was subsequently acquitted, according to news reports, but as of late 2024, it was still only publishing online.
Rakotondrazaka told CPJ that the charges against Rasoamaharo had “been put together to lock him up” in reprisal for his journalism — an opinion that three other journalists, who spoke with CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing safety fears, concurred with.
"(I’m) 99.9% sure that his legal troubles are due to La Gazette’s publications," a former colleague told CPJ, pointing to the newspaper’s March 3, 2023, report that Rajoelina had dual citizenship, having acquired French nationality in 2014. The revelation led to legal efforts to block Rajoelina from running for re-election. An adult Malagasy who acquires a foreign nationality loses their Malagasy nationality, and presidential candidates must be citizens.
On March 15, 2024, Antananarivo’s Anosy court convicted Rasoamaharo of attempted escape on December 19, 2023, his lawyer Andrianina Ravoajanahary told CPJ, adding that her client went to court to sign documents, in an appeal procedure, and then passed by his home and doctor, with the authorization of the security officer and under prison escort, before returning to prison — which was confirmed by the prison officer who accompanied the journalist.
As of late 2024, CPJ had not received any responses to calls requesting comment from the ministry of justice, while the person who answered the phone at Razaka’s company, ETRAD, took CPJ’s email but did not send the promised response.