March 30, 2007	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 10, 1428

CHIANG MAI (Thailand): A Thai court sentenced a Swiss man on Thursday to 10 years in jail for defacing images of Thai royalty, a rare prison term for a foreigner convicted under the country's tough lese-majeste laws.

Oliver Rudolf Jufer, 57, was initially sentenced to 20 years for five acts of lese-majeste, but the judge reduced the term to take into account Jufer's guilty plea earlier this month.

Jufer was arrested in December in the northern city of Chiang Mai after black paint was sprayed on several portraits of 79-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej, whom many Thais regard as semi-divine, and Queen Sirikit. Jufer was drunk when the portraits were defaced on Dec 5, the King's birthday and a national holiday. He was also charged with damaging property, but was jailed only for lese majeste. “The court sentences him for defaming the king, which is the most serious crime,” Judge Pitsanu Tanbuakli told the court.

Jufer, wearing orange-brown prison clothes with iron shackles on his ankles, said nothing to reporters. He has 30 days to appeal.—Reuters