Shakira appeals to avoid the trial and alleges that she has no "debts" with the Treasury

Shakira, during a meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.Ruben Sprich / Reuters

Shakira will continue to fight for her innocence in the criminal case she is facing for alleged tax fraud.

The Colombian singer will appeal against the judge's decision to prosecute her for avoiding the payment of 14.5 million euros to the Treasury, as defense sources have explained to EL PAÍS.

The decision will delay the next step that the Prosecutor's Office must take: specify the prison sentence requested for the artist for six tax crimes.

The defense harshly criticizes that the case will go to trial and insists that there is no direct evidence that, between 2012 and 2014, Shakira spent “more than 183 days in Spain”, the requirement that the law establishes for a citizen is considered tax resident. He insists that the Tax Agency only has "indirect" evidence, which does not meet the requirements required by case law. The official version of his lawyers is that during that time he resided in the Bahamas, where he had bought a house years before.

The finance technicians, however, dismantled that thesis by analyzing his daily life in Barcelona with Gerard Piqué.

They came to the conclusion that Shakira's numerous absences from Spain - especially to attend professional commitments - were "sporadic", since when she had to return home she always returned to Barcelona.

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The same sources recall that the artist "has paid the entire amount charged to her so far, so she has no pending tax debt." Shakira has paid more than 41 million euros: 24 of them correspond to a file opened by the Tax Agency that remained in administrative proceedings because, when the Prosecutor's Office sued against the singer in 2018, that fiscal year had already prescribed. The other 17.5 million paid correspond to the amount defrauded (plus interest) in the years that are investigated in the criminal process.

A judge from Esplugues de Llobregat concluded a few days ago that there is "sufficient evidence" for the Shakira case to be settled in an oral hearing.

The defense of the singer affirms that the magistrate "has not addressed the subject under discussion" - Shakira's fiscal residence - and criticizes that he has "confused a technical question of a legal nature with a problem of evidence."

That is one of the reasons that will lead lawyers to appeal the order directly to the higher body, the Barcelona Court, which must decide whether to keep it or revoke it.

The appeal further delays a process that began in court more than two and a half years ago.

The prosecution does not plan to present its indictment until the Barcelona Court has resolved the appeal, as public prosecutor sources have explained to EL PAÍS.