Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej has pardoned Swiss national Oliver Jufer, who was sentenced to 10 years in jail for defacing images of the beloved monarch in the city of Chiang Mai. Jufer has been ordered to leave the country and was due to be deported by the end of the day. "The king in his kindness has granted him a pardon and he has been transferred from prison and is in the process of being deported from the country," said Chiang Mai police Col Prachuab Wongsuk. Jufer, who had lived in Thailand for more than 10 years before his arrest, was recorded on surveillance cameras defacing the portraits on the king's 79th birthday last December. Earlier Jufer had tried to buy alcohol but had been refused, as such sales are sometimes banned on important days.
BBC