Popular Congolese musician; Koffi Olomide, was handed a two-year suspended prison sentence for the statutory rape of one of his former dancers when she was just 15 years of age.
Koffi Olomide went on trial after four former dancers alleged that he sexually assaulted them severally between years 2002 & 2006. The assaults allegedly happened in the Democratic Republic of Congo 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 reprisal. Prosecutors at his trial in Nanterre, outside Paris, had hoped Koffi will get a seven-year prison sentence, but the jury dismissed the assault & kidnapping charges.
Koffi Olomide, was also ordered to pay the sum of 5,000 euros in damages to the former dancer, as well as a 5,000-euro fine for helping three of the women enter France illegally.
