LONDON — Jermaine Jackson says his family had secretly arranged to fly Michael to Bahrain if the pop icon was found guilty of child molestation.

Jermaine was quoted as telling The Times magazine out Saturday that a private jet financed by a friend was on standby to whisk his late brother to the Gulf emirate if the 2005 court case ended with a conviction.

Bahrain does not have an extradition treaty with the U.S.

Jermaine says his brother did not know about the escape plan but Michael would have “done it in a heartbeat” because “why should he go to jail for something he didn’t do?”

The singer was found not guilty on all charges. He later spent a year in the emirate as a guest of a son of Bahrain’s king.