Renowned Malian singer Rokia Traoré has been detained at Rome’s main international airport in Italy over a conviction in Belgium stemming from a child custody dispute.
Italian media reported that Rokia Traoré was arrested upon arriving at Fiumicino airport before a scheduled concert. A spokesperson for the airport confirmed her arrest to the AFP news agency on Sunday.
In 2020, Traoré was initially detained in France on a Belgian arrest warrant after she did not comply with a court order to hand over her child to her Belgian father.
After being released under conditions, she departed for Mali on a private flight, in defiance of the French ban on her leaving until her extradition to Belgium.
Last October, Traoré was sentenced in absentia to two years in prison by a Belgian court for charges of parental abduction, specifically for “failing to hand over a child to the person entitled to custody,” according to Belgian prosecutors speaking to AFP.
Since age four, her daughter, now nine years old, has lived in Mali.
Reportedly, her former partner, the child’s father, has had no contact with his daughter since then.
Her lawyers indicated that when she was initially arrested in 2020, she was travelling from Mali to Brussels to appeal against the custody ruling.
Mali’s government publicly supported the singer, stating that she holds a diplomatic passport.
Traoré is well-known for her advocacy for refugees and has received numerous awards, including the 2004 BBC Award for World Music and the 2009 World Music Album of the Year in the Victoires de la Musique, France’s equivalent of the Grammys.
In 2015, she became a goodwill ambassador for the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees in West and Central Africa.