Disgraced rocker Glitter seeks amnesty again

04/08/2007 2:09 AM, Reuters


British ex-rocker Gary Glitter, jailed in Vietnam for sexually molesting two young girls, plans to seek an amnesty during Vietnam's Liberation Day celebrations this month, his lawyer said.

Glitter, 62, is due for release in August next year after an earlier bid for amnesty saw his sentence of nearly three years jail cut by three months.

"My client will certainly seek an amnesty this time but it is still up to the president to decide if he would be released," lawyer Le Thanh Kinh said Friday by telephone from Ho Chi Minh City.

Kinh said the government had not announced an amnesty to mark the April 30 anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War but such gestures were often made around major national holidays.

The 1970s glam rocker -- who used to perform hits such as "Rock and Roll," "Do You Wanna Touch Me" with a bouffant hairstyle and platform boots -- denied molesting the 11-year-old girls while living in the southern resort town of Vung Tau.

The rocker, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, was convicted after a one-day trial last year.

"My client is quite healthy in prison. He has been given a job of cutting trees there," Kinh said.

Reuters