One of Africa's best-known musicians – Malian singer Rokia Traoré – has reportedly been jailed in Belgium as part of an ongoing custody battle.
According to the AFP news agency, the 50-year-old is being held for an outstanding two-year prison sentence following his extradition from Italy.
The long-running saga dates back to 2020, when Traoré was initially detained in France on a Belgian arrest warrant after she failed to comply with a court order to hand her daughter over to the girl's Belgian father.
Months after her conditional release, Traoré flew to Mali on a private flight, defying a ban on leaving France until her extradition to Belgium.
Last October, Traoré was sentenced in absentia by a Belgian court to two years in prison for “failure to hand over a child to the person entitled to custody” for child abduction by a parent.
In June, Traoré was arrested at Rome's Fiumicino airport as she flew in for a concert over an outstanding custody conviction for which there was a European arrest warrant. Two months later, a court in the Italian capital approved her extradition.
An appeal by the singer was rejected last week, paving the way for extradition. Traoré has been in prison since her arrest, Reuters news agency reported.
Her daughter, now nine years old, has lived in Mali since she was four.
A lawyer for the child's father, Traoré's former partner Jan Goossens, reportedly said he has had no contact with his daughter since then.
When she was first arrested in 2020, she had traveled from Mali to Brussels to appeal the custody ruling, her lawyers had said.
Mali's government previously supported the singer on the grounds that she had a diplomatic passport.
Traoré's lawyer Vincent Lurquin is said to have told AFP that the singer intends to appeal the two-year prison sentence, which would trigger a new trial.
He also said that both Traoré and Goossens hoped to “find an agreement in the interests of the child” and thus avoid a new prison sentence.
AFP reported that prosecutors in Belgium confirmed that Traoré would remain in custody throughout the new trial.
Traoré is one of Africa's most famous singers. She has won several awards, including the BBC Award for World Music in 2004 and the World Music Album of the Year award in 2009 at the Victoires de la Musique, the French equivalent of the Grammys.
She is also known for her advocacy work on behalf of refugees, becoming a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in West and Central Africa in 2015.
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