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Image description, Rokia Traoré was sentenced to two years in prison in absentia in Belgium last yearArticle information
- Author, Basilioh Ruka
- Role, BBC News
-
6 hours ago
The famous Malian singer Rokia Traoré was arrested at the international airport of the Italian capital Rome. The accusation was that she had been convicted in Belgium in the context of a custody dispute.
According to Italian media reports, she was arrested at Fiumicino airport on her way to a concert.
An airport spokesman told AFP news agency on Sunday that border police had confirmed their arrest.
Traoré was initially arrested in France in 2020 on a Belgian arrest warrant after she failed to comply with a court order to hand over her child to her Belgian father.
Months after her conditional release, she flew to Mali on a private flight, ignoring the 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 on charges of child abduction because he “did not hand over the child to the person with custody,” Belgian prosecutors told AFP.
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, reportedly said he had had no contact with his daughter since then.
When she was first arrested in 2020, she was on her way from Mali to Brussels to appeal the detention decision, her lawyers said.
The Malian government then supported the singer on the grounds that she had a diplomatic passport.
Traoré is one of Africa's best-known singers. She has won several awards, including the BBC Award for World Music in 2004 and World Music Album of the Year 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 and was appointed Special Ambassador of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in West and Central Africa in 2015.
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