Rokia Traoré
The trial of the Malian singer Rokia Traoré was postponed to January 8 in Brussels, Belgian justice announced this Monday.
The Malian singer Rokia Traoréarrested last June in Rome, Italy, was transferred and imprisoned in Haren prison, near Brussels.
Aged 50, she is facing a conviction for non-representation of a child pronounced in 2023 by the Brussels court.
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.
Arriving handcuffed, the singer affirmed “never refused that the father” be in contact with their daughter, but was “afraid of bringing her to Belgium and that she would be held here”. This affair “snowballed, it destroyed my career,” she said.
According to one of the lawyers, her ex-partner just wants to “see his daughter, like a father and is not asking for sole custody, but to have the right to see her during the holidays” in Belgium.
Present at the hearing, the playwright did not speak.
Rokia Traorésinger and guitarist, is also known for her commitment to refugees and for having been named a goodwill ambassador in 2016 by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
