Shakira says she was ‘publicly burned at the stake’ by Spanish treasury

Shakira has accused the Spanish government of “publicly burning her at the stake” during the Inquisition as if she were a witch, in her most virulent attack since her tax fraud case.

The Colombian singer confessed to six counts of tax fraud in a Barcelona court last November. In exchange for a three-year suspended prison sentence and a £6.4 million (€7.3 million) fine, she was fined £6.4 million (€7.3 million) on the first day of her trial.

She claimed she was being “persecuted” before agreeing to a plea deal and accused the Spanish justice system of a “smear campaign” after she admitted wrongdoing.

The artist, who left Barcelona for a new life in Miami with her two children after her decade-long relationship with former footballer Gerard Pique ended, published a harsh letter in the respected Spanish daily El Mundo last night, accusing Spain’s tax authorities of a sexist intimidation campaign that led to her being displayed as a “hunting trophy”.

The singer also claimed: ‘It may seem incomprehensible, but for me the Spanish decade was a financially lost decade, and not because I worked little, as everyone knows.

Shakira and Pique were together for 11 years and had two children – sons Milan, 11, and Sasha, nine, before their ugly split in 2022

Shakira claimed she was now speaking out for her children again and was furious: ‘Things don’t get solved by burning a public figure at the stake every year’

‘I’ve given 120 concerts in 90 different cities. How can someone who gives 120 concerts lose money? It sounds strange, I know, but today my assets consist of what I earned before I arrived in Spain and what I earned after I left the country. Everything I earned during those years went to the Spanish State.’

She reiterated an earlier claim that she had admitted wrongdoing rather than going to court with her accusers to “protect her children”, adding: “More than punishing those who do not play by the rules, the Spanish tax authorities want to show off hunting trophies to restore the credibility of the disputing party.

‘And how do we achieve that? By scaring people, threatening them with jail time, endangering our children’s peace of mind, and pressuring us to break ourselves.

“They wanted the public to believe that I had not paid my taxes, when in reality I had paid much more than I should have.”

Spanish prosecutors had announced before Shakira walked into court in a striking pink suit that she would plead guilty and formalize her plea agreement. They were seeking a prison sentence of eight years and two months and a fine of almost £21 million (€23.7 million) if judges found her guilty of six counts of tax fraud they accused her of in 2012, 2013 and 2014.

The lawsuit sought to refute Shakira’s claim that she lived in the Bahamas between early 2012 and late 2014 and that she should not have been considered a Spanish resident for tax purposes, despite having been in a relationship with her ex Gerard Pique in 2010.

Many of the 117 witnesses called to testify were questioned about their knowledge of her life in Barcelona during the three crucial years before she registered as a full-time taxpayer in Spain in 2015.

Among them were the Colombian artist’s former Argentine boyfriend, Antonio de la Rua, her driver, hotel and restaurant staff and a beauty salon employee, as well as Zumba instructors who prosecutors say came to the Catalan capital specifically to teach Shakira classes.

Prosecutors laid out the basis of their case against Shakira in a 15-page indictment they filed with an investigating judge.

In her emotional letter, Shakira insisted that the Spanish tax authorities were guilty of sexism and claimed they had manipulated her desire to make her relationship with Pique work

There were rumors that Pique had been unfaithful to the singer, who is pictured at the Met Gala

In the written document, they accused the artist, whose real name is Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, of living “regularly” in Spain during the 2012 to 2014 tax years, first in Pique’s bachelor pad in Barcelona and then in a country house she bought with her former partner in Esplugues de Llobregat, near the Catalan capital, through an investment company.

They claimed her absence from Spain for work and other reasons was “sporadic,” apart from a 61-day period she spent in the United States in 2012 when she was a coach on the American version of singing competition “The Voice.”

In her emotional letter, Shakira highlighted the sexism of the Spanish tax authorities, claiming they had manipulated her desire for a successful relationship with Pique. She said: ‘If the singer had been an American man, had fallen in love with a Spanish woman and had visited her regularly, I find it hard to believe that the tax authorities would have judged that he intended to settle.’

She added: ‘Someone who spends their time touring around the world cannot have the intention of settling somewhere financially just because the person they are currently in a relationship with lives there.

‘That would be like thinking that a tourist who goes on holiday to Ibiza should be liable for tax just because she had a local romance.’

Shakira claimed she was now speaking out for her children again and was furious: ‘You don’t solve this by burning a public figure at the stake every year, as if it were an Inquisition trial, to regain lost prestige.

‘I want to leave my children the legacy of a woman who explained her reasons calmly and at her own pace, when she felt it was necessary, not when she was forced to.

“I want them to know that I made the decisions I made to protect them, to stand by their side and move on with my life. Not out of cowardice or guilt.”

Shakira and Pique were together for 11 years and had two children: sons Milan, 11, and Sasha, 9, before splitting in 2022.

There were rumors that the former footballer had been unfaithful to the singer and his current girlfriend Clara Chia, 26.

The pop star was spotted dining with a mystery man in her new hometown of Miami last month.

She told Rolling Stone when asked about her love life in June, “I don’t think about it. How much room do I have for a man now?”

“What can I tell you, I like men. That’s the problem. I shouldn’t like them with everything that’s happened to me, but imagine how much I like men that I still like them.”