Renowned Malian singer Rokia Traoré was arrested at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport in Italy due to a conviction in Belgium related to a child custody dispute.
Traoré, who was traveling for a concert, was detained by border police, according to an airport spokesperson. In 2020, she was initially detained in France on a Belgian arrest warrant for failing to comply with a court order to hand over her child to the child’s Belgian father. After being conditionally released, she left France on a private flight to Mali, defying a travel ban.
Last October, a Belgian court sentenced Traoré in absentia to two years in prison for parental abduction, as she did not hand over her child, who has been living in Mali since age four, to her father. The father, Traoré’s former partner, claims he has not had contact with his now nine-year-old daughter since then.
Traoré was on her way to Brussels in 2020 to appeal the custody ruling when she was arrested. Mali’s government supported her, citing her diplomatic passport.
Traoré is a prominent African vocalist, awarded the BBC Award for World Music in 2004 and the 2009 World Music Album of the Year in France’s Victoires de la Musique. She is also an advocate for refugees, serving as a goodwill ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in West and Central Africa since 2015.