a former French colonel sentenced to forced labor

Philippe François, a former colonel in the French army, has a glorious past. But today, the man who has been in prison in Madagascar for a year has his sentence confirmed: ten years of forced labor. His daughter has been living through a nightmare since last summer and her father’s arrest. For her, he is innocent. She denounces the inaction of the French authorities, who nevertheless claim to be following the case.

“Political level, strictly political, for example, I have never been received, my family or I, by the minister’s office. My father, it is still 25 years of service. He was head of the corps of one of the most decorated regiments in France, it has the Legion of Honor, the Croix de Guerre”, she laments. Reconverted into civilian life, in the field of security, he left for Madagascar in 2020 and joined forces with a Franco-Malagasy. At the time of leaving the country faced with the failure of his business, he was arrested at the airport and placed in police custody, accused of having fomented a putsch with his associate.