Cape Town — The controversial rhumba maestro Koffi Olomide is likely to face seven years in jail over sex assault allegation in France.

According to AfricaNews.com, "the 62-year-old musician is standing trial for allegedly sexually assaulting four former dancers who say they were held against their will at a villa outside Paris".

The crimes were allegedly committed in Paris between 2002 and 2006.

"The dancers say they were detained by three men at the villa in Asnieres-sur-Seine, northwest of Paris, while Olomide was touring or recording, and had their passports and phones taken. They say that they were forced to have sex with Olomide, who struck them if they tried to resist, in the villa, in the bathroom of a supermarket, and also while in the Democratic Republic of Congo", according to AFP,

Olomide denies these allegations.

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.

He was slapped with similar charges by authorities in DR Congo in 2016 for kicking one of his dancers.

Koffi Olomide is also the subject of a judicial process in Zambia, where he was previously barred from entering after he slapped a Rwandan photojournalist in Lusaka in 2012.