The Malian singer Rokia Traoré, in a case of non-representation of a child, saw her appeal against her delivery to Belgium rejected by the Italian Court of Cassation. He will be transferred to the Belgian authorities. “in the next few days”announced his lawyer to Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Wednesday, November 20.
“Rokia was sentenced to two years in prison during a trial that took place in Brussels without having been informed, in her absence and without being able to be defended by a lawyer, in violation of the right of defense and the principle of equal justice. rehearsal”stated his Italian lawyer, Maddalena Claudia Del Re, in a message sent to AFP. “Today, the battle for Rokia’s rights moves to Brussels”he concluded.
The singer and guitarist, sentenced in absentia in 2023 to two years in prison for this case, was detained in June at Fiumicino airport in Rome, where she had just landed to give a concert in the country.
Next, the Brussels prosecutor specified that “the arrest of Mme Traore in Italy[sai]t following a decision of the Brussels Criminal Court of October 18, 2023 that sentenced the interested party, in absentia, to a sentence of two years in prison for failure to represent a child” to the person who has custody of it.
Rokia Traoré had already been arrested in March 2020 in Paris under a European arrest warrant, because a Belgian court had ordered her to return her youngest daughter to the girl’s Belgian father, the playwright Jan Goossens. Despite the ban on leaving France, he flew with his daughter to Mali.
In addition to her music career, Rokia Traoré is also known for her support of refugees. She became a UN refugee ambassador in 2015.
