Congo-Kinshasa: Rhumba Maestro Koffi Olomide Guilty of Rape

Capital FM
Koffi Olomide.
19 March 2019
allAfrica.com
By Melody Chironda

Cape Town — The popular rhumba and soukous maestro Koffi Olomide has been found guilty of statutory rape of one of his former dancers when she was 15.

Olomide has been on trial for sexually assaulting his dancers between 2002 and 2006. The dancers said they were detained by three men at the villa in Asnieres-sur-Seine, Paris, while Olomide was touring or recording, and had their passports and phones confiscated.

They say that they were forced to have sex with Olomide, who struck them if they tried to resist. The assaults happened in the Democratic Republic of Congo and France.

He was handed a two-year suspended jail sentence by a court in France in absentia, as he failed to turn up. According to AFP, Olomide was ordered to pay a fine of U.S.$5,700 in damages to the former dancer and for helping three women enter France illegally.

The popular singer is no stranger to controversy as he was declared persona non-grata in 2016 and deported after he kicked one of his female dancers at Jomo Kenyatta Airport in Kenya.

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