Vietnam postpones Briton Glitter's appeal hearing

HANOI, May 16 (Reuters) A Vietnam court has postponed the May 19 appeal hearing of disgraced British ''glam rocker'' Gary Glitter over his three-year sentence for molesting children, his lawyer said today.

The lawyer Le Thanh Kinh said by telephone that he had not been given a new date by the Supreme Court in Ho Chi Minh City for Glitter's appeal.

''The court told me they had decided to delay the appeal but did not provide reason or new date,'' Kinh said.

Glitter, who turned 62 on May 8, has been imprisoned in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau since last November.

On March 3, the faded pop star was found guilty after a one-day, closed trial of molesting two 11-year-old girls in the resort town of Vung Tau. The judge said the singer would be deported from Vietnam after serving the sentence.

Born Paul Francis Gadd, Glitter rose to fame in the 1970s with pop songs and a flamboyant hairstyle.

Glitter, already registered as a sex offender in Britain after a 1999 child pornography conviction, was arrested at Ho Chi Minh City airport in November 2005 while trying to leave Vietnam.

REUTERS SI SSC1038