Laurence Dollimore
LIONEL Messi has demanded environmental activists pay him €50,000 in damages after they spray-painted his luxury Spanish villa.
Last week, members from Futuro Vegetal daubed the Argentinian footballer’s mansion in Ibiza with red and black paint.
In a video shared online, they unfurled banners in English reading ‘Help the planet, eat the rich, abolish the police.’
The campaigners claimed the €11 million property was constructed illegally and broke environmental laws.
“This is just another example of how the law does not work equally for everyone,” said spokesman Bilbo Bassaterra at the time.
However 10 days later, lawyers for Messi, who is worth an estimated €544 million, filed a lawsuit demanding €50,000 in compensation.
In the writ, they accused the group of criminal damage, reports El Español.
However Bassaterra rubbished the claims, saying the paint ‘comes off with water’ and that ‘at most you will have to scrub a little.’
He said that ‘if even you had to repaint it’, the cost of the work would not amount to €50,000.
The protest at the player’s home took place on August 6 and the three activists were arrested two days later after throwing paint at the façade of the Leonardo Royal Hotel, located in Santa Eularia, which they accuse of ‘financing the genocide’ in Gaza.
The trio were released on bail after 24 hours, accused of criminal damage in relation to both incidents.
