Thai pardon for US citizen jailed for royal insult

A Thai-born US citizen jailed for insulting the king has been pardoned by the monarch, in a case that has drawn protest from the United States. Joe Wichai Commart Gordon, who was jailed for two-and-a-half years in December, "was granted a royal pardon yesterday", a senior Corrections Department official told AFP on Wednesday. Gordon, a car salesman from Colorado, was convicted under the kingdom's strict lese majeste laws, which rights campaigners say are used to stifle freedom of expression. He was released from Bangkok Remand Prison late Tuesday, according to a jail official. Gordon was arrested in May on a visit to the kingdom and accused of posting the material deemed offensive online while living in the United States. He was initially sentenced to five years in prison, but the Thai Criminal Court halved the term because he pleaded guilty to publishing online a banned biography of King Bhumibol Adulyadej that he translated into Thai. Under Thailand's lese majeste legislation, anyone convicted of insulting the king, queen, heir or regent faces up to 15 years in prison on each count.