Malian singer Rokia Traore is set to be extradited from Italy to Belgium following a two-year prison sentence. Traore, who was initially detained in France in 2020 under a Belgian arrest warrant, faced legal trouble after failing to comply with a court order to hand over her daughter to her Belgian father.
“Rokia will have to be transferred to Belgium within 10 days from today,” a Rome court ruled on Thursday. The sentence stems from her October 2023 conviction in absentia for parental abduction.
Traore had previously defied a travel ban by flying to Mali after being conditionally released in France. She was arrested again in Italy in June 2024, but she contested the extradition order. Her nine-year-old daughter has been living in Mali since the age of four.
