According to reports Malian singer Rokia Traore, one of Africa’s most well known performers has been imprisoned in Belgium in connection with a continuing child custody battle.
According to the AFP news agency, the 50 year old is being detained following his extradition from Italy due to an unfinished two year prison sentence.
After Traoré disobeyed a court order to turn over her daughter to the girl’s Belgian father, she was first arrested in France on a Belgian arrest warrant in 2020 beginning the protracted story.
Traoré defied a ban on leaving France awaiting her extradition to Belgium by taking a private jet to Mali months after being conditionally released.
In October of last year, a Belgian court condemned Traoré in absentia to two years in prison for “failing to hand over a child to the person entitled to custody” in connection with parental abduction.
A European arrest order for Traoré’s unresolved child custody conviction led to her arrest at Rome’s Fiumicino airport in June while she was traveling there for a concert. Her extradition was authorized by a court in the Italian capital two months later.
The extradition was made possible after the singer’s appeal was denied last week. Traoré has been detained since her arrest. Since turning four her daughter, now nine years old has resided in Mali.
Traoré’s ex-partner Jan Goossens, the child’s father’s attorney, allegedly stated that he hasn’t spoken to his daughter since.
She was traveling from Mali to Brussels when she was first detained in 2020 with the intention of appealing the detention decision, according to her attorneys.
The singer was earlier defended by Mali’s government which claimed that she held a diplomatic passport.
According to AFP, Traoré intends to appeal the two year prison sentence which would result in a new trial, according to Traoré’s attorney Vincent Lurquin.
Additionally, he stated that Goossens and Traoré hoped to “find an agreement in the interests of the child” in order to avoid receiving a new prison term.
The Belgian state prosecutor’s office stated that Traoré would be held in custody during the upcoming trial, according to AFP.
One of the most well known vocalists in Africa is Traoré. She has received numerous honors such as the 2004 BBC Award for World Music and the 2009 Victoires de la Musique (French Grammys) for World Music Album of the Year.
In 2015, she was appointed a goodwill ambassador for the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees in West and Central Africa further solidifying her reputation for advocating for refugees.
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