The Malian singer Rokia Traoré, requested by Belgian justice, was transferred on Friday, November 29 from Italy and imprisoned in Haren prison, near Brussels, the Belgian capital’s prosecutor’s office informed Agence France-Presse (AFP). “She arrived in Belgium and was imprisoned in Haren prison”declared a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office without further details.
Rokia Traoré, 50, faces a sentence for non-representation of a child handed down in 2023 by the Brussels court. Since 2019, he has had a conflict with the Belgian playwright Jan Goossens over the custody of the girl born from their union in 2015, a girl whom her father says he has not seen for five and a half years. Pursuant to a European arrest warrant, Rokia Traoré was detained in 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 communicate to the Belgian courts, upon her arrival, her opposition to the sentence in absentia in 2023, in order to be tried again in their presence. In this hypothesis, “She will remain detained for the duration of this second trial.”stressed the prosecutor’s spokesman. This new hearing could take place as early as December.
Contacted by AFP, Mmy Lurquín said he wanted “find an agreement in the interests of the child” with the opposing party, in order to avoid a new sentence for Mme Traore. Since his arrest in Italy, Rokia Traoré opposed his surrender to Belgium, but he has exhausted all his resources before the Italian justice system. The latter was rejected on November 20 by the Italian Court of Cassation, paving the way for his transfer.
