A Belgian court Monday postponed the trial of Malian singer Rokia Traore to January 8 over an outstanding two-year prison sentence handed down in a child-custody dispute. The 50-year-old singer and guitarist was sentenced in absentia by a Brussels court last year on charges of parental abduction, in a long-running fight with the Belgian father of her daughter -- now aged nine. Traore was arrested in Italy in June and a Rome court later approved her extradition to Belgium, where she arrived in November. She has appealed her conviction and will be retried, this time in her presence.

Arriving handcuffed at the courthouse in Brussels Monday, the singer said she “never refused to let the father” have contact with his daughter, who lives in Mali, but was “afraid to bring her to Belgium and have her detained here”. This case “has snowballed, it has destroyed my career”, she said. The singer’s new lawyer, Dimitri de Beco, asked for the trial to be postponed to “give him time” to dive into the details of the case.

The lawyer insisted the child only knew life in Mali. “She goes to school in Mali. It’s her country and she grew up there. She’s never been to Belgium,” he said. The dispute between Traore and the child’s father, Belgian playwright Jan Goossens, dates back to 2019. Goossens says he has not seen his daughter in more than five years. Goossens’ lawyer Sven Mary said his client “wants to see his daughter, like a father. He is not asking for sole custody, but to have the right to see her during the holidays” in Belgium. - AFP