Barcelona star Lionel Messi will appeal and vowed to clear his name after a court in Spain on Wednesday sentenced him and his father to 21 months in jail for tax fraud, the player's lawyers said
Lionel Messi
Barcelona: Barcelona star Lionel Messi will appeal and vowed to clear his name after a court in Spain on Wednesday sentenced him and his father to 21 months in jail for tax fraud, the player's lawyers said.
Lionel Messi
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The prison sentences may be suspended as is common in Spain for first offences for non-violent crimes with a sentence of less than 2 years.
The Argentine's lawyers feel an appeal would eventually succeed in persuading the court that Messi and his father have behaved correctly, the player's representatives told AFP in a statement.
"The most recent laws from the supreme court on this matter would seem to prove the argument of the defence," Messi's lawyers Enrique Bacigalupo and Javier Sanchez-Vera said.
The Barcelona court found Messi and his father Jorge Horacio guilty of using companies in Belize, Britain, Switzerland and Uruguay to avoid paying taxes on a major part of his income.