Malian singer Rokia Traoré arrested in Italy following conviction for failure to represent a child

Malian singer Rokia Traoré was arrested in Italy following a conviction in Belgium in a case of non-representation of a child, the Brussels prosecutor’s office announced on Sunday June 23. 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 daughter, now aged nine, to the child’s Belgian father, Jan Goossens.

The singer and guitarist was sentenced in absentia in October to two years in prison in this case. Italian media reported that the musician was arrested on Friday June 21 at Rome’s Fiumincino airport, where she had just landed to give a concert in the country.

An airport spokesperson said border police had confirmed Rokia Traoré’s arrest. Italian authorities have not yet commented on the information. The Brussels public prosecutor’s office indicated for its part that “the arrest of Rokia Traoré in Italy follows a decision of the Brussels Criminal Court of October 18, 2023 having sentenced the person concerned, by default, to a two-year prison sentence for non-representation of a child” to the person having custody.

Despite a ban on leaving France, she flew with her daughter to Mali. According to Belgian lawyer Sven Mary, who represents the child’s father, his client has not had the slightest contact with his daughter, who lives in Mali, for more than five years. “In recent years, Jan Goossens has, very regularly, (…) proposed to Rokia Traoré to conclude a new family agreement, validated by the Malian and Belgian courts, in order to escape from this nightmare and guarantee their daughter a future with her two parents“, assured Sven Mary.

“Rokia Traoré refused all these approaches and attempted solutions“, according to the lawyer. Besides her successful music career, Rokia Traoré is also known for her support for refugees. She became a UN ambassador for refugees in 2015.