Malian Singer Rokia Traore To Be Extradited To Belgium Over Child Custody Case

Malian Singer Rokia Traore To Be Extradited To Belgium Over Child Custody Case

Malian singer and guitarist Rokia Traore is set to be extradited from Italy to Belgium after receiving a two-year prison sentence in a child custody dispute, according to her lawyer on Thursday.

Traore was convicted in absentia by a Brussels court last year for charges related to parental abduction. She was arrested in Italy in June and fought against the extradition, but a Rome court has now ruled that she must be transferred to Belgium within 10 days.

The legal issues stem from a Belgian court’s order for Traore to return her daughter, now nine, to the child’s Belgian father. She had previously been arrested in Paris in 2020 under a European arrest warrant but left France for Mali before she could be extradited to Belgium.

The father’s lawyer stated that he has had no contact with the child since she was four and expressed willingness to negotiate a new custody arrangement with Traore that would be approved by both Malian and Belgian courts.

Beyond her music career, Traore is known for her work as a refugee advocate and was appointed a UN Ambassador for Refugees in 2015.