Australian author freed after Thai royal pardon

Australian writer Harry Nicolaides waits inside a detention cell of the Bangkok's Criminal Court January 19, 2009. Nicolaides pleaded guilty to defaming Thailand's crown prince on Monday and faces up to 15 years in jail when he is sentenced later in the day.

BANGKOK/SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian author jailed for three years for insulting Thailand's crown prince in a little-read 2005 novel has been freed and is expected to return home shortly, officials said on Saturday.

The case against 41-year-old Harry Nicolaides, who was arrested in August, was one of a slew of lese-majeste investigations in Thailand that rights groups say are stifling freedom of speech and political dissent.

"He received a royal pardon," a Thai prison official told Reuters in Bangkok.

A spokesman for Australia's foreign ministry welcomed the decision by Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej to grant a pardon.

"We expect Mr Nicolaides will shortly be reunited with his family in Australia," the spokesman said, adding the author and teacher had been released from jail on Friday.

The ministry spokesman said Australia appreciated the "expeditious handling of the pardon" by the Thai authorities.

Earlier Nicolaides' Australian lawyer Mark Dean said that the pardon was granted on Thursday.

"We are very pleased that Harry's case has been able to be processed as quickly as it has been," Dean told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Lese-majeste, or insulting the monarchy, is a very serious offence in Thailand, where many people regard 81-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej as semi-divine.

It is punishable by up to 15 years in prison although convictions, especially of foreigners, are rare and are normally followed quickly by a pardon.

A Swiss man, Roland Jufer, was sentenced to 10 years in 2007 for spraying black paint on pictures of the king but was pardoned at Thai New Year in mid-April after serving only four months. Jufer was deported as soon as he was released.

Critics have questioned why a country that proclaims such devotion to its monarch needs such strong laws to protect his image. The Democrat Party-led government that came to power in December last year has vowed to toughen the laws yet further and blocked thousands of websites carrying anti-royal commentary. A prominent Thai leftist academic, who was charged with lese majeste for comments made in a 2007 book about the previous year's military coup, said he could not get a fair trial in Thailand and fled to London earlier this month.

Critics and freedom of speech advocates say the government's crusade to protect the crown in the twilight years of King Bhumibol's six-decade reign is a pretext to crush political dissent and opposition.

Nearly three years after the coup that ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Thailand remains locked in a political crisis which has distracted policymakers from dealing with an economy on the brink of recession.

Analysts say the outlook for political stability remains bleak as long as the rift between Bangkok's royalist military and business elite, who accuse Thaksin of corruption, and rural voters who loved his populist policies, remains unresolved.

(Additional reporting by Bangkok bureau)

(Editing by Darren Schuettler)