- (AFP) -- Pop superstar Michael Jackson was charged with
child molestation, the chief prosecutor announced, charges that could see
him face up to 24 years in prison if convicted.
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- Jackson was charged with seven counts of child molestation
and two counts of administering intoxicating liquor to a minor with the
intent of committing a crime, District Attorney Tom Sneddon said.
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- Jackson's spokesman meanwhile denied a New York newspaper
report that the entertainer had Wednesday night joined controversial preacher
Louis Farrakhan's black Muslim organisation, Nation of Islam.
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- But Backerman, while saying he would be stunned if the
New York Post report was true, stressed he had not spoken to Jackson on
Thursday.
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- "I haven't been told that, I haven't heard that,"
he told AFP. "All I can say is, as far as I'm concerned, that it's
untrue. But I just can't imagine it."
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- The Post said "the King of Pop is restyling himself
Jacko X."
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- "High-ranking members of Nation of Islam have been
working to bring Jackson into Reverend Louis Farrakhan's flock -- and Jackson's
conversion is now well-known in the NOI community," it said, quoting
unnamed sources.
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- Nation of Islam, which is controversial because of Farrakhan's
anti-Jewish and anti-homosexual declarations, would not comment on the
report when contacted by AFP.
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