London, Friday September 8, 2023. The former Chief of Staff of the Madagascan President, Andry Rajoelina, pleaded not guilty this Friday in a London court to having demanded a bribe from the precious stone prospector and owner of Fabergé, Gemfields.
Romy Andrianarisoa, 46, and his French associate Philippe Tabuteau, 54, are accused of demanding 250,000 Swiss francs (280,000 US dollars) and a 5% stake in the mining company Gemfield in Madagascar.
They both appeared this Friday at Southwark Crown Court, where Andrianarisoa pleaded not guilty to one count of corruption, ahead of a trial due to take place in February (2024). Tabuteau did not plead to any charge of corruption.
The indictment says the two people allegedly demanded a bribe to ensure that “the Malagasy Parliament passes a law authorizing Gemfields to start a mining operation.”
Prosecutors told a hearing last month that Gemfields contacted Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA), which then deployed an undercover agent who met Andrianarisoa and Tabuteau in London.
At one of the meetings, there was a discussion about whether the two people would be paid “in cash, precious stones or gold,” prosecutor Rosalind Earis previously said.
The office of Malagasy President Andry Rajoelina said in a statement last month that Andrianarisoa had been fired and that the president “remains firmly committed to ethics in the conduct of state affairs and to the fight against against corruption”.
As a reminder, and according to the NCA (National Crime Agency): “ The function of the CPS – on which the « Crown Court de Southwark »-, is not to decide whether a person is guilty of a criminal offense, but to make fair, independent and objective assessments of whether it is appropriate to present charges to a criminal court ».
Collected by Jeannot Ramambazafy
Source : NCA et The Print India
