Pop star Shakira attends court near Barcelona over tax fraud charges

Colombian singer Shakira appeared in a local court near Barcelona on Thursday to answer charges of tax fraud amounting to 14.5 million euros.

Prosecutors accuse the pop star, and partner of Barça player Gerard Piqué, of avoiding paying the tax between 2012 and 2014 when she was living in Catalonia.

Shakira dodged reporters at the court in Esplugues de Llobregat, near Barcelona, by entering from the parking lot, where her lawyer had rented her a parking space.

Facing six accusations of fraud from the time she began living with Piqué in the Catalan capital, Shakira’s defense claims she paid her taxes in the Bahamas.

However, the prosecution alleges that her representatives hid her income from the Spanish tax agency and only started paying taxes in Spain in 2015.

Shakira spent over 200 days in Catalonia in each of the years covered by the allegations, with the law stipulating that residents who live for 183 days in Spain must pay tax.

In a statement, the singer insisted she owed "nothing" in Spain and had paid everything "down to the last euro demanded by the tax agency."