The two-part film, which was released in March, broke streaming records and prompted the Jackson family to sue for $100 million (88 million euros). The French lawyer acting for the fan groups, Emmanuel Ludot, called the allegations “extremely serious” and likened them to “a genuine lynching” of Jackson, who died in 2009. Under French law, sullying the image of a dead person is a criminal offence, unlike in Britain or America where libel and defamation laws do not offer this protection. Ludot had previously successfully sued Jackson’s doctor Conrad Murray for causing distress to his fans by giving the US pop legend the drugs that killed him. Jackson died in 2009 aged 50 from an overdose of the anaesthetic propofol while under Murray’s care, as the “King of Pop” rehearsed in Los Angeles for a series of comeback concerts in London.

Source: The Guardian July 02, 2019 09:00 UTC