• Shakira is on trial in Spain for tax evasion between 2012 and 2014.
• She denies evading 14.5 million euros ($14.31 million) in taxes.
• A Spanish judge ruled in July that there was “sufficient evidence” to prosecute her.

Shakira promised to fight what she described as “false” claims by Spanish authorities that she evaded 14.5 million euros ($14.31 million) in taxes, in her first public comments on a case that may result in her spending up to eight years in prison.

Shakira, 45, is on trial in Spain for tax evasion between 2012 and 2014, a period during which she claimed to be living a “nomadic lifestyle” due to her profession.

“I have to fight for what I believe because these are false accusations,” the ‘Hips don’t lie’ singer told Elle magazine in an interview published online in the United States on Wednesday and due to run in its October print edition. “I owe zero to them.”

According to reports, Shakira spent more than half of each year in Spain between 2012 and 2014 and purchased a family house in Barcelona in May 2012. In July of last year, a Spanish judge ruled that there was “sufficient evidence” to prosecute Shakira. In May, a second court denied her appeal of the verdict.

[embedpost slug = “/shakira-is-producing-a-music-video-despite-her-custody-dispute/”]

Shakira, who rejected a deal with the prosecutor to settle the case in July, claims that the authorities only pursued her “with their eyes on the prize” after discovering that she was dating Spanish-born FC Barcelona soccer player Gerard Pique.

“While Gerard and I were dating, I was on a world tour. I spent more than 240 days outside of Spain, so there was no way I qualified as a resident,” she said.

“The Spanish tax authorities saw that I was dating a Spanish citizen and started to salivate. It’s clear they wanted to go after that money no matter what,” the singer claimed.

Shakira said that she had paid what the Spanish tax agency claimed she owed prior to their filing a case.

She expressed confidence that she had acted ethically and openly from the outset, indicating that the Spanish authorities “resorted to a salacious press campaign” to harm her name.

The combination of her recent divorce from Pique, a custody dispute over their two children, her father’s illness, and “fighting on numerous fronts” meant that the singer was facing “perhaps the saddest hour of my life,” she claimed.

A spokeswoman for the Spanish prosecutor’s office was unavailable for comment immediately.

[embedpost slug = “/shakira-reveals-her-split-with-gerard-pique-was-a-sad-hour/”]