On 10 May, human rights defender Jeannot Randriamanana – who had been in arbitrary detention for two months- was granted provisional release. On 12 July, the Court of Appeal of Fianarantsoa upheld his conviction and two-year suspended sentence on the charges of “defamation and humiliation of members of Parliament and public servants and identity fraud”. Jeannot Randriamanana was convicted solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression when he denounced on Facebook the alleged mismanagement and embezzlement of humanitarian aid by several authority figures in the district of Nosy Varika, in east Madagascar.
