Former British rocker Gary Glitter to face Vietnamese court Feb. 20

Former British rocker Gary Glitter is expected to go on trial Feb. 20 in southern Vietnam to face charges of committing obscene acts with two girls aged 10 and 11, his Vietnamese attorney said Friday. "He's ready to go to court and so am I," defense attorney Le Thanh Kinh told The Associated Press in a telephone interview, adding he was informed the trial will be held in Ba Ria Vung Tau province, some 125 kilometers east of Ho Chi Minh City.

Photo: Former British rocker Gary Glitter to face Vietnamese court Feb. 20

Kinh said it was still unclear whether the trial would be open to outside observers and the media or held behind closed doors. Kinh said he visited Glitter, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, in prison several days before the Lunar New Year festivities began Jan. 29 and planned to see him again next week.

"He is in a very good health," Kinh said. Glitter, 61, who won fame as a flamboyant glam rocker in the 1970s, has been accused of kissing and fondling the girls and engaging in other physical acts at his rental home in the coastal resort city of Vung Tau last year.

He has been jailed near the coastal town of Vung Tau since Nov. 19 after he was seized in Ho Chi Minh City trying to board a flight out of the country, reports the AP.

I.L.