Malian singer Rokia Traoré, requested by Belgian justice, was transferred from Italy on Friday and imprisoned in Haren prison, near Brussels, the public prosecutor's office in the Belgian capital said.
“She arrived in Belgium and was imprisoned in Haren prison,” said a spokesperson for the prosecution without further details. Rokia Traoré, 50, is facing a conviction for non-representation of a child handed down in 2023 by the Brussels court.
Child custody dispute
A conflict has pitted him since 2019 against Belgian playwright Jan Goossens over custody of the child born from their union in 2015, a little girl whom her father says he has not seen for five and a half years.
Under a European arrest warrant, Rokia Traoré was arrested last June at Fiumicino airport in Rome, where she had just landed to give a concert in Italy. According to her Belgian lawyer Vincent Lurquin, the singer had to notify the Belgian courts, upon her arrival, of her opposition to the default conviction of 2023, in order to be able to be retried in his presence.
Appeal exhausted
In this hypothesis, “she will remain in detention for the duration of this second trial”, underlined the spokesperson for the prosecution. This new hearing could take place as early as December. Me Lurquin affirmed that he wanted to “find an agreement in the interests of the child” with the opposing party, in order to avoid a new conviction for Rokia Traoré. Since her arrest in Italy, Rokia Traoré opposed her surrender to Belgium but she has exhausted all her appeals before the Italian justice system. The last one was rejected on November 20 by the Italian Court of Cassation, paving the way for his transfer.
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