Malian singer Rokia Traoré remains in Brussels jail pending child custody trial
Malian singer Rokia Traoré remains confined in Haren prison in Brussels for the time being, the Brussels correctional court has ruled. The 50-year-old woman has for years been embroiled in a child custody dispute with her former partner, Belgian playwright Jan Goossens, the father of her daughter. The trial has been postponed until 8 January.
Traoré was sentenced in absentia to two years' imprisonment in October 2023 for not respecting a family court verdict on the custody of the child she has with the Belgian father, Jan Goossens. The couple had a daughter in 2015 but separated about four years later. Since then, Goossens has not seen his daughter, who is now nine years old, despite two verdicts from the Brussels family court.
In the first verdict of June 2019, that court granted the father visiting rights, and in the second, of September 2019, even custody rights, but Traoré did not comply with either verdict. She even accused Goossens of sexual misconduct, a complaint that was dismissed as unfounded by judicial authorities in several countries, including Belgium.
In March 2020, the woman was arrested in France on the basis of an international arrest warrant issued by Belgium. She was conditionally released by the French court and had to surrender her passport, but still managed to flee the country by private jet.
“Flight risk”
In June 2024, Traoré was arrested at Fiumicino airport in Rome, where she had landed to play a concert in Italy. The singer resisted her extradition to Belgium, but was eventually extradited in late November. Her defence asked for her to be released conditionally, but this was refused.
“There is a flight risk and danger of repetition of offences,” the public prosecution said on Monday. “Ms Traoré has never shown any goodwill in this case.” Sven Mary, Goossens' lawyer, argued in the same vein: “If she is released now, we will not see her and the child again. It is sad that she is now in prison, but she is responsible for that herself. She had no desire to come to Belgium, and she has no desire to let the father see his child.”
Dimitri de Béco, Traoré's lawyer, argued that it was not in the child's interest to keep the mother in jail. “Keeping the mother in prison to get the child to Belgium is the worst solution,” he said.
Malian singer Rokia Traoré © BELGA PHOTO BERTRAND LANGLOIS / AFP
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