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LONDON: Pop megastar Michael Jackson will testify in person at London's High Court next week against allegations that he owes a Bahraini prince seven million dollars, his lawyer said on Thursday.
Robert Englehart, representing the "King of Pop", told the court that Jackson was withdrawing his application to give evidence via videolink from Los Angeles because of an unspecified medical condition.
"He has been cleared by his medical advisers to travel in two days' time," Englehart said.
Sheikh Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa, second son of the King of Bahrain, is suing cash-strapped Jackson for seven million dollars (5.6 million euros), demanding the repayment of several advances which the artist has argued were gifts.
The 50-year-old artist is expected to give evidence on Monday afternoon, after arriving in Britain over the weekend.
According to the BBC, the court heard earlier that Jackson was suffering from an unspecified medical condition and it was unlikely that he would be able to give evidence in person.
Experts for the defence had said, though, that it may have been possible for Jackson to testify in London with "suitable dressings", the BBC said.
According to the prince's lawyer Bankim Thanki, the sheikh helped support Jackson financially in the aftermath of his 2005 child molestation trial, accepting a request from the artist for one million dollars in April 2005, as well as paying the 2.2-million-dollar legal bill for the court case.
Thanki said Jackson signed a contract to record albums, write an autobiography and stage shows, and that document noted that seven million dollars would be deducted from the artist's royalties to pay for expenses.
The court heard that Jackson visited Bahrain with his children and personal staff in the aftermath of his 2005 child molestation trial, and left in May 2006 to go to Europe and Japan.
A month later, Jackson asked Sheikh Abdulla to sign a document releasing him from his obligations under the previous contract - a request the prince refused, Thanki said.
He said the sheikh felt "a strong sense of betrayal" at the time.
Jackson contests the claim, saying the sheikh's case is based on "mistake, misrepresentation and undue influence."
Englehart told the court earlier this week that while there was "no doubt that Sheikh Abdulla was very generous in his hospitality and general treatment of Michael Jackson", the contract Jackson apparently signed was "one brick in a building which was never built."
He said: "It will be my submission that this contract is clearly intended by both parties to be one of the contractual arrangements in a joint venture which never actually materialised."
Jackson also argues that the sheikh exercised "undue influence" over him in the aftermath of the 2005 trial, at which point he was emotionally exhausted.
Thanki told the court on Monday that Jackson and the sheikh had a "close personal relationship" and even collaborated on a musical project - Jackson recorded a song written by the prince which was planned as a charity single.
A recording of the song would be played in court during the trial, he said.
Though Jackson was riding high in the aftermath of his 1983 uber-hit "Thriller", which remains the best-selling album of all-time with 50 million copies sold, he has since fallen on harder times, with speculation intense regarding the state of his finances. - AFP/de
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