General Bruno Rajaonson, the former military chief of staff, was Wednesday acquitted of charges of "seeking to compromise state security" by Antananarivo's criminal court, his lawyer told AFP.

Rajaonson's arrest had stirred protest among Madagascar's political and military leaders, who defended the former military head as a model of integrity.

During a seven-month crisis last year in which his former boss, Ratsiraka, refused to cede to the newly elected president, Marc Ravalomanana, Rajaonson had led mediation efforts between the two.

He was arrested earlier in the spring after a woman who was convicted of planning an attack on the defense ministry named him as an accomplice. Two low-ranking officers were also detained in connection with the plot, and later received suspended sentences.

Ratsiraka, who led the Indian Ocean island nation from 1975 until December 2001 elections, fled Madagascar last July and is living in exile in France.

WAR.WIRE