Lionel Messi, the Barcelona football star and his dad Jorge were involved in a tax fraud and were sentenced to 21 months jail last year in the month of July; the duo hired the best of lawyers and appealed in the Supreme Court against this jail sentence.
Messi and his father defrauded the Spanish tax officials of £3.5m i.e. 29 crores between 2007 and 2009, due to which even a huge fine was slapped on them.
Today, the Supreme Court remained firm on the decision of 21 months jail sentence; however, his father’s sentence was reduced from 21 months to 15 months.
Spanish laws are different and so, it’s unlikely that Messi will go to jail. As per Spanish laws, a jail sentence under 2 years i.e. 24 months can be served under probation. This is only possible if the person has no criminal record before.
In case of Messi and his father, the sentence can be reconsidered as they don’t have prior criminal records and their sentence is lesser than 2 years i.e. it’s just 21 months.
After the confirmation, Barcelona released a statement in support of Messi. It read,
“FC Barcelona gives all its support to Leo Messi and his father with relation to the sentence for tax evasion handed out by the Provincial Court in Barcelona. The club, in agreement with the government prosecution service, considers that the player, who has corrected his position with the Spanish Tax Office, is in no way criminally responsible with regards to the facts underlined in this case. FC Barcelona continues to be at the disposal of Leo Messi and his family to support him in whatever action he decides to take in defence of his honesty and his legal interests.”
Let’s see what happens; what do you think? Will the sentence be cancelled, considering the Spanish laws or will Messi and his dad go to jail?
