Lauryn Hill sentenced to three months in prison

Lauryn Hill has been sentenced to serve three months behind bars for tax evasion.

The former Fugees frontwoman will spend a further three months under house arrest and nine months on supervised release once she is freed from federal prison.

At a hearing on Monday (05May13), a judge in Newark, New Jersey, ordered Hill to report to prison by 8 July (13), reports TMZ.com.

The ruling came just one day after Lauryn Hill's lawyer confirmed the star had paid off more than $900,000 in tax debts and penalties.

Last year (12), the singer pleaded guilty to three charges of failing to file her tax returns between 2005 and 2007.

During the hearing, Lauryn Hill handed a bizarre statement to the judge, in which she compared her situation to slavery. It read: "I was put into a system I didn't know the nature of... I'm a child of former slaves. I got into an economic paradigm and had that imposed on me.

She added, "I sold 50 million units... (and) now I'm up here paying a tax debt. If that's not likened to slavery, I don't know what is."