"I have learned that he received a royal pardon a few days ago. Now he has been released but will be deported from Thailand," said Panu Kwanyuen, the provincial attorney general in the northern city of Chiang Mai.

 Oliver Jufer, 57, had been sentenced to 10 years in prison on March 29 after pleading guilty to five counts of lese majeste -- the crime of offending the dignity of a sovereign.

 He was convicted of defacing several portraits of the king with spray paint during a drunken spree in Chiang Mai in December.

 A prison official in Chiang Mai said Jufer had been released on Tuesday. Thai court officials could not say if he had been deported yet.

 Swiss embassy officials were not immediately reachable for comment.

 Jufer is from Zurich but has lived mainly in Thailand for the last 10 years and has married a Thai woman, according to Thai authorities.

 Security cameras videotaped him defacing the king's portraits on December 5, which is the monarch's birthday and a time of national celebration.

 Thailand has been swept up in royal fever since the king's 60th anniversary on the throne in June last year.

 The palace also became more prominent in Thai political life with a military coup in September, which was conducted with the king's apparent blessing.

 The generals who staged the coup have repeatedly said that one of the reasons for ousting elected prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was because he had been "impolite" to the monarch.

 But prosecutors last week dropped the lese majeste charges against Thaksin, although they chided him over the remarks.

Agence France Presse