Congolese Musician, Antoine Christophe Agbepa Mumba, popular as Koffi Olomide, has been sentenced to a two-year suspended jail term by a court in France for raping a 15-year-old girl.
He was sentenced in absentia as he was a no show.
This
sentence means that the 62-year-old music composer, producer and singer
faces an arrest if he commits further offenses, according to BBC.
The
graduate of Business Economic and pioneer of the soukous genre was
ordered by the court to pay a fine of $5,700 in damages to the former
dancer.
He was also ordered to pay the same amount to the court for illegally bringing three women into France.
Reports
also stated that Olomide’s lawyer, Emmanuel Marsigny hailed the ruling
as a victory that it would result in the withdrawal of the star’s
international arrest warrant.
The Kisangani born artist in
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was accused of raping a young lady
between 2002 and 2006 after it was alleged that he seized her passport.
He went on trial after four former dancers claimed he sexually assaulted them several times between 2002 and 2006.
The
assaults allegedly happened in the DRC as well as in France, including
at a villa outside Paris where the women said they were held against
their will.
The dancers said they managed to make a night-time
escape from the villa in June 2006, and have not returned to their
country since for fear of reprisals.
Prosecutors at his trial in
Nanterre, outside Paris, had sought a seven-year prison sentence but the
court dismissed the assault and kidnapping charges.
The Master
Degree holder in Mathematics was first charged in 2012 with aggravated
rape but the charges were subsequently reduced.
Facing a French
arrest warrant, he fled to DR Congo in 2009 but had initially said he
would appear at the trial to defend himself.
Olomide, however, failed to show for the trial last month, which was held behind closed doors at the women’s request.
Share your thoughts