Former producer blames “criminal” doctors for Michael Jackson death

The criminals in this affair are the doctors who treated him throughout his career, who destroyed his face, who gave him medicine to ease his pain.

Friend and former producer Tarak Ben Ammar

A close friend of Michael Jackson has said “criminal” doctors who took advantage of the star’s hypochondria are responsible for his death.

The pop icon’s former producer and friend Tarak Ben Ammar on Friday denounced the late pop icon’s doctors as “criminals” and “charlatans” who had plied the star with prescription drugs.

“It’s clear that the criminals in this affair are the doctors who treated him throughout his career, who destroyed his face, who gave him medicine to ease his pain,” he told France’s Europe 1 radio.

“He was a hypochondriac and one never really knew if he was sick because he had become surrounded by charlatan doctors who were billing him thousands and thousands of dollars worth of drugs, vitamins…,” said the Tunisian producer.

He said he believed Jackson, who he said regularly took sleeping pills, had died of a heart attack “because he was taking all sorts of medicines”, but he insisted that he had never seen him take illegal drugs.

“He ate badly, he didn’t have a very healthy life, he couldn’t do sport,” said Ben Ammar.

Close friend Uri Geller said the stress of Jackson’s highly-anticipated concert comeback caused his death.

‘Paranormalist’ Geller said Jackson was desperate to prove to the world that he was still a superstar despite child abuse allegations which had seriously damaged his career.

He described the scale of Jackson’s planned comeback shows — some 50 concerts at London’s O2 Arena, which were due to start in July — as “just scary”.

“He wanted to prove to the world that he is number one, that he is still Michael Jackson, that he can still deliver a thriller,” Geller told BBC radio.

“The anticipation, the stress levels, the anxiety for what was coming up in London was so huge … I believe that that stopped his heart”.

Meanwhile, a lawyer for the Jackson family said the star was taking large amounts of prescription drugs as he battled to get into shape for his gruelling concert comeback.

Brian Oxman told CNN that he had harboured concerns about Jackson’s use of drugs, saying members of the star’s entourage were “enablers” and comparing his case to the drug overdose death of Playboy centrefold Anna-Nicole Smith.

“This is not something that has been unexpected… because of the medications which Michael was under,” Oxman said from the hospital where Jackson’s family members had gathered.

“The people who have surrounded him have been enabling him… if you think that the case of Anna-Nicole Smith was an abuse, it was nothing to what we have seen in Michael Jackson’s life.

“I do not know the extent of the medications that he was taking but the reports we had been receiving in the family is that they were extensive,” Oxman added.

“When you warn people that this is what’s going to happen and then it happens — where there’s smoke there’s fire.”

Jackson, one of the most influential figures in pop history whose career included the highest-selling album of all-time, Thriller, died on Thursday after suffering a cardiac arrest in Los Angeles.

http://livenews.com.au/feature/former-producer-blames-criminal-doctors-for-michael-jackson-death/2009/6/26/211239