Jackson buys home in Bahrain?

Published August 2, 2005

NEW YORK, Aug 1: Pop superstar Michael Jackson has brought a luxury property in Bahrain, where he recuperated after his gruelling child molestation trial, the New York Post reported on Monday. Citing royal insiders in Bahrain, the newspaper said Jackson, 46, had purchased a 14-acre property near a palace of Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al Khalifa, a son of Bahrain’s King Hamad.

Jackson took off for Bahrain shortly after his acquittal on June 13 on charges of molesting a 13-year-old recovering cancer victim. At the time, a source close to Bahrain’s ruling family said Jackson was a friend of some ‘senior figures’ in the country and had come to ‘rest and relax as a guest’.

During his 19-month legal ordeal, which culminated in a four-month trial, Jackson appeared increasingly thin and frail and, on several occasions, sought hospital treatment for a back problem. —AFP