According to attorneys in Brussels on Sunday, Malian singer Rokia Traore has been taken into custody in Italy due to an unfulfilled two-year prison sentence that was imposed in Belgium during a custody battle.
The singer-guitarist fled France in 2020, just before she was supposed to be turned over to Belgian police, and was found guilty in absentia on accusations of parental abduction in October.
The celebrated artist was detained on Friday at Rome’s Fiumicino airport after arriving for a performance, according to Italian media. The airport confirmed her arrest with border police, an the representative said. No formal confirmation from the Italian government was provided.
“Ms. Traore’s arrest in Italy follows a decision by the Brussels Criminal Court on October 18, 2023, which sentenced her in absentia to two years imprisonment for failing to hand over a child to the person entitled to custody,” prosecutors reported.
In March 2020, Rokia Traore was taken into custody in Paris according to a European arrest warrant, following a decision made by a Belgian court directing her to give her nine-year-old daughter back to her father. A few months later, she flew home to Mali in defiance of a ban on leaving France, before she could be deported to Belgium.
Rokia Traore
According to the child’s father’s attorney, he hasn’t spoken to his Mali-based daughter since she turned four. According to the attorney, in an effort to “find a way out of this nightmare and guarantee their child a future with two parents,” the father volunteered to draft a new custody arrangement with Traore that would be approved by the courts in Mali and Belgium. Traore is well-known for her advocacy work for refugees in addition to her celebrated music career. In 2015, she was appointed a UN ambassador for refugees.
