Lionel Messi prison sentence: Barcelona superstar and father to appeal 21-month prison ruling to a Supreme Court

Lionel Messi and Jorge Messi’s lawyers will appeal to the Supreme Court
The lawyers believe the sentence “is almost symbolic, in view of the sentence imposed (7 months per offense), but that it is incorrect” and expect the outcome of their appeal to rule in favour of the defence.
After the details of the court ruling emerged, Lionel Messi and Jorge Messi’s lawyers have expressed their belief that “the sentence is incorrect, but that it focuses the debate in such a way that would seem to make it clear that the appeal to be presented will result in a ruling in favour of the defence.” In any case, for the lawyers, “the sentence imposed represents an almost symbolic penalty (7 months for each fiscal offense), given that the amount demanded by the Spanish Tax Agency had already been previously paid.”
Lawyers, Enrique Bacigalupo and Javier Sanchez-Vera state that “the large majority of the arguments on which the ruling focuses the debate are precisely the ones which we are convinced must lead to absolution, as such, the appeal has a good chance of being successful.” Thus, the ruling expressly states that there must have been “serious suspicion about the legality of the use of companies”, and with this statement, the parties should not have been convicted of an intentional crime. Moreover, no consideration was given to the fact that the companies used to enter into contracts were not owned by the player of his father.
The appeal will be presented to the Supreme Court, which typically takes slightly under a year for a resolution to be reached. According to the lawyers, “the most recent jurisprudence from the Supreme Court in matters relating to this case, would seem to back the defence’s arguments, and this will be asserted in the appeal.” In addition, they also consider that, “as all outstanding payments specified by the Tax Agency had been paid, the Agency’s stubbornness to uphold the accusations has never been understood.”
Furthermore, the lawyers stressed that both Lionel and Jorge “were aware of their tax obligations and for this very reason, they approached a firm specialising in tax management for athletes”, which was already working with other footballers and with F.C. Barcelona, however “it’s evident that the court considers that they were not well advised.”