(Image source: BBC)

BY CHRISTINA HARTMAN

An American man faces 2 ½ years in a Thai prison -- for translating and posting online an unauthorized biography of the Thai king.

The BBC has the story of 55-year-old Joe Gordon, who was born in Thailand but had lived in the U.S. for about 30 years. But when he returned for medical treatment - he was arrested.

“He pleaded guilty in October to insulting the Thai monarchy. ... The lese majeste laws protecting the royal families from defamation are the harshest of their kind in the world. Long sentences have been handed down in other cases.”

Gordon posted the banned biography online from Colorado, where he was living at the time. And while 2 ½ years might seem harsh -- the AP reports, another man was recently sentenced to TWENTY years for sending text messages the courts deemed offensive to the queen.

Reporting from Thailand, CNN’s Anna Coren explains the Southeast Asian country’s lese majeste law is pretty rare, even for other countries that have monarchies.

“We can't repeat his remarks or what was said in this particular book because we will be charged with breaking the law. ... Lese majeste laws protect the monarchy and countries that have monarchies, most of them have actually phased out these particular laws, but Thailand has the harshest laws in the world. Now if you insult, criticize or threaten the king, the monarchy or any members of it, you will be be punished with imprisonment...”

The New York Times reports, the book, called “The King Never Smiles,” suggests the king has slowed the progress of Thailand’s democracy.

“The number of so-called lèse-majesté cases has sharply increased in Thailand in recent years, a period of political turmoil and divisions about the future of the monarchy.”

Those laws have put Thailand in the crosshairs of human rights organizations. The U.S. Embassy’s consul general told reporters Gordon’s sentence was too severe, and that freedom of expression should be a widely recognized human right. Nonetheless, Asia Sentinel’s Simon Roughneen doesn’t expect the laws to change.

“...both the current government and royalist hardliners appear oblivious to such pleas for caution, with threats to block Twitter and Facebook after royalists condemned the popular social networking sites as possible conduits for perceived anti-monarchy material.”

According to the BBC, Gordon is expected to apply for a royal pardon.