{"id":28706,"date":"2024-11-30T11:24:43","date_gmt":"2024-11-30T16:24:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=28706"},"modified":"2024-11-30T11:24:43","modified_gmt":"2024-11-30T16:24:43","slug":"malian-singer-detained-in-belgium-in-child-custody-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2024\/11\/30\/malian-singer-detained-in-belgium-in-child-custody-row\/","title":{"rendered":"Malian singer detained in Belgium in child custody row"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"ssrcss-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">One of Africa&#8217;s best known musicians &#8211; the Malian singer Rokia Traor\u00e9 &#8211; has reportedly been imprisoned in Belgium as part of an ongoing child custody dispute.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The 50-year-old is being held after being extradited from Italy, over an outstanding two-year prison sentence, according to the AFP news agency.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The long-running saga dates back to 2020 when Traor\u00e9 was initially detained in France on a Belgian arrest warrant after failing to heed a court order to hand over her daughter to the girl&#8217;s Belgian father.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Months after she was\u00a0<a class=\"ssrcss-f6h2dj-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-europe-52043844\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">conditionally released<\/a>, Traor\u00e9 flew out to Mali on a private flight, defying a ban from leaving France until her extradition to Belgium.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-1x9m6ni-BulletListContainer e5tfeyi0\">\n<ul role=\"list\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><a class=\"ssrcss-f6h2dj-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c1rrrl97v30o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Malian singer detained in Italy in child custody row<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Last October, Traor\u00e9 was sentenced in absentia to two years in prison by a court in Belgium on charges of parental abduction for &#8220;failing to hand over a child to the person entitled to custody&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In June, Traor\u00e9&#8217;s was arrested at\u00a0<a class=\"ssrcss-f6h2dj-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c1rrrl97v30o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fiumicino airport<\/a>\u00a0in Rome as she flew in for a concert, over the outstanding child custody conviction, for which there was a European arrest warrant. Two months later, a court in the Italian capital approved her extradition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">An appeal by the singer was rejected last week, paving the way for the extradition to take place. Traor\u00e9 has been held in prison since her arrest, the Reuters news agency reported.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Her daughter, who is now aged nine years, has lived in Mali since turning four.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A lawyer for the child&#8217;s father, Traor\u00e9&#8217;s former partner Jan Goossens, reportedly said he had not had any contact with his daughter since then.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">When she was initially arrested in 2020, she had been travelling from Mali to Brussels intending to appeal against the custody ruling, her lawyers had said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Mali&#8217;s government previously came out in support of the singer, saying that she had a diplomatic passport.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Traor\u00e9&#8217;s lawyer, Vincent Lurquin, is reported to have told AFP that the singer plans to appeal the two-year prison sentence, which would trigger a new trial.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He also said both Traor\u00e9 and Goossens were hoping to &#8220;find an agreement in the interests of the child&#8221;, thus averting a new prison sentence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">AFP reported that the state prosecutor&#8217;s office in Belgium confirmed that Traor\u00e9 would remain in detention throughout the new trial.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Traor\u00e9 is one of Africa&#8217;s best known vocalists. She has won several awards, including the BBC Award for World Music in 2004 and the 2009 World Music Album of the year in the Victoires de la Musique, the French equivalent of the Grammys.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">She is also known for her advocacy work for refugees, becoming a goodwill ambassador for the UN&#8217;s High Commissioner for Refugees in 2015 in West and Central Africa.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/ce9gk9e2e4go\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\">One of Africa&#8217;s best known musicians &#8211; the Malian singer Rokia Traor\u00e9 &#8211; has reportedly been imprisoned in Belgium as part of an ongoing child custody dispute. The 50-year-old is being held after being extradited <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2024\/11\/30\/malian-singer-detained-in-belgium-in-child-custody-row\/\" title=\"Malian singer detained in Belgium in child custody row\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[4796,3686,10887,6719,2707,10888,2913,1468,4045,6996],"class_list":{"0":"post-28706","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-world","9":"tag-belgium","10":"tag-brussels","11":"tag-child-custody","12":"tag-european-arrest-warrant","13":"tag-extradition","14":"tag-fiumicino-airport","15":"tag-france","16":"tag-italy","17":"tag-mali","18":"tag-rome","19":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28706"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28708,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28706\/revisions\/28708"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}