Spanish prosecutors seek 8-year prison sentence for Shakira

Barcelona prosecutors have announced that they will seek more than eight years in prison for world music star Shakira, after she rejected a plea deal over accusations of tax fraud.

The court will now have to decide on the conduct and date of the trial.

Prosecutors accuse the 45-year-old singer of defrauding the Spanish tax office and not paying taxes worth 14.5 million euros for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014. Hiding assets in offshore companies for tax fraud.

Shakira’s lawyers maintain that until 2014 most of her income came from her world tours, and that she did not live for periods of more than six months a year in Spain, a condition for determining her tax residency in the country.

And a Barcelona court announced in May that it had rejected a request by the singer to stop the prosecutions against her, on the grounds that she had not been a resident of Spain during the years covered by the tax evasion charge, but that her tax headquarters was at the time in the Bahamas.