Congolese Soukus musician Koffi Olomidé has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for the kidnapping of his former dancers in Asnières, a town in the Paris region.
The Versailles Court in France however, acquitted Olomidé of sexual assault charges he had earlier on been charged with on the same dancers. They were both former members of his Quartier Latin band.
The sexual assault allegedly happened between 2002 and 2006 in the singer’s villa in Paris.
The acquittal on the sexual assaults is “given for the benefit of the doubt,” explained the president of the 7th Correctional Chamber of the Versailles Court of Appeal, referring in particular to the “evolving, sometimes contradictory statements” of the complainants.
Koffi Olomidé and his two accomplices must now pay from 10,000 to 32,000 euros in damages for each dancer.
The four Congolese women, who filed a complaint between 2007 and 2013, accused Koffi Olomidé of having locked them in a pavilion in the Paris suburbs and forcing them to have sex with him, on a regular basis for some.
The singer’s judicial record is heavy and includes a conviction in 2019 in France, for rape of a minor under 15 years old and sequestration of four of his dancers. At first instance, the Nanterre court gave him a two-year suspended sentence instead of the seven-year prison sentence requested by the prosecution. The star had appealed against the sentence.
