Barcelona - (AFP) - The Public Prosecutor's Office in Barcelona (northeast Spain) announced Friday that it will seek more than eight years in prison on charges of tax evasion against the Colombian star Shakira , who announced her refusal to conclude an agreement and expressed her intention to proceed with the case until the trial.

In the indictment, seen by Agence France-Presse, the Public Prosecutor also indicated that it would request that the star accused of evading paying taxes of 14.5 million euros between 2012 and 2014 be fined approximately 24 million euros.

The judiciary must now decide on the conduct of the trial and announce its start date.

Shakira, who asserts her innocence of any tax evasion, announced on Wednesday her refusal to conclude an agreement with the Public Prosecution Office, expressing her intention to proceed with the case until the trial.

Shakira's agents stated that the possibility of reaching an agreement remains open, however, until the start of the trial before a court in Barcelona, knowing that the decision to refer the 45-year-old star officially to the court has not yet been issued.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the star's lawyers conveyed her condemnation of the "total violation" of her rights and the "arbitrary methods" resorted to by the Public Prosecution, and stressed that the singer is "confident that the judiciary will prove her right."

The Public Prosecution accuses the owner of the songs "Hips Don't Lay" and "Waka Waka" of not declaring the value of her income to the Spanish tax authorities during the years 2012, 2013 and 2014.

The Public Prosecution says that Shakira had been living in Spain since 2011, the year in which Shakira announced her relationship with Barcelona football star Gerard Pique, but she kept her tax headquarters in the Bahamas, which is classified as a tax haven, until 2015.

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

And the singer indicated in the statement, which was transmitted by her lawyers, on Wednesday, that the Public Prosecution office “insists on claiming the money” that the singer earned during her international tours and from the “The Voice” program, in which she was a member of the jury in its American version in the United States when she was not “residing in Spain yet.” .

Shakira also confirmed that she had previously paid 17.2 million euros to the Spanish tax authorities, and therefore she no longer had "any debts to the treasury for several years."

And a court in Barcelona announced last May that it had rejected a request made by the singer to cease prosecutions against her, on the grounds that she was not residing in Spain during the years included in the charge of tax evasion, but rather her tax residence was then in the Bahamas.

Shakira's name was mentioned in what was known as the "Pandora Papers", a wide investigation published at the end of 2021 by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, in which hundreds of personalities were accused of hiding assets in offshore companies, mainly for the purpose of tax evasion.

Last June, Barcelona football club Gerard Pique and Shakira announced their separation after a relationship for more than a decade that produced two children. "We regret to confirm our separation. We ask that privacy be respected for the good of our children, who are our top priority," the duo said in a joint statement.