Rokia Traoré to be extradited to Belgium over child custody case

Malian singer-songwriter Rokia Traoré is to be deported to Belgium from Rome following her losing an appeal at Italy’s High Court.

The 50-year-old singer was arrested on 20 June from Rome’s Fiumicino airport under a European arrest warrant. In 2023, Traoré was given a two year prison sentence in Belgium due to a custody battle over her daughter that straddles European and African law.

Traoré has a daughter with Belgian playwright Jan Goossens, who she separated from in 2018. Following their split, a Mali court issued full custody to Traoré, a decision that was disputed by a Belgian court.

Since then, Traoré and Goossens’ daughter has lived in Mali. Traoré was first arrested in Paris in 2020 and a warrant placed on her to surrender her daughter when she came back to Belgium for a custody hearing.

Upon her release, Traoré ignored instructions to remain in France until she could be extradited to Belgium for trial and returned to her daughter in Mali.

Traoré returned to Europe in June to play a concert outside Rome’s Colosseum. On arrival at Fiumicino airport, she was arrested once again.

This week, Italy’s highest court rejected her appeal and the singer will be extradited to Belgium. “Rokia suffered an injustice. She was arrested without the Belgian criminal court hearing her voice. Now, the battle for Rokia’s rights moves to Brussels,” Traoré’s lawyer Maddalena Del Re told Reuters.

Sven Mary, Goossens’s lawyer, said: “Rokia Traoré claimed de facto exclusive custody and has been denying her daughter contact with her father, and his entire family, for more than a five-and-a-half years now.”

“Rokia Traoré’s rights have always been respected by the Belgian justice system: she was properly summoned, and was always able to defend herself correctly. However, for years she has chosen to ignore Belgian justice, not to be represented, as well as to flout Belgian family judgments that have tried to restore the balance between mother and father.”

Traoré is one of Mali’s most famous musicians. She’s performed across the world and appeared on the jury for the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, as well as being a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations’ refugee agency UNHCR.