US grand jury indicts Michael Jackson

A US grand jury on Wednesday indicted pop superstar Michael Jackson, moving his child molestation trial to a higher court to speed it along.

The charges in the indictment were not immediately known. The ruling came after 13 days of deliberating whether there was enoughevidence against Jackson to expedite the trial to Santa Barbara Superior Court, where there will be no pre-trial hearings.

Jackson's lawyer Mark Geragos said Jackson would plead innocentat his arraignment April 30 in Santa Barbara Superior Court. No trial date has been set.

Jackson, 45, was originally arraigned in Santa Maria District Court in January, where he pleaded not guilty to seven felony counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 and two counts of giving the child an "intoxicating agent."

"Mr. Jackson and his attorneys are confident that after a trialon these charges, Mr. Jackson will be fully exonerated and that the allegations contained in the indictment will be shown to be patently false," Geragos and Jackson's other attorneys said in a statement on the singer's Web site.

Santa Barbara County District Attorney Thomas Sneddon has said the grand jury's charges might include special allegations that could make Jackson ineligible for probation if convicted.

The grand jury proceedings were held privately, but reports said the 19 jurors heard from more than a dozen witnesses, including the alleged victim, a 12-year-old Los Angeles boy and his brother, his mother and father, and the mother's two attorneys,Larry Feldman and William Dickerman.

In 1993 Feldman represented another boy, 13 at the time, who accused Jackson of molestation. The case was settled in a multi-million-dollar settlement. Witnesses from that case have also appeared before this grand jury, according to the sources.

Source: Xinhua