BANGKOK (AP) — A woman in Thailand sentenced to a prison term of more than four decades on a charge of royal defamation was released on Wednesday by a royal pardon after serving just under one-fifth of her term, said a human rights organization.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights said 69-year-old Anchan Preelert was one of six political prisoners freed under a July 29 pardon on the occasion of King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s birthday.

Anchan, a former civil servant, was sentenced in January 2021 by the Bangkok Criminal Court on 29 counts of violating the country’s lese majeste law for posting audio clips to Facebook and YouTube with comments deemed critical of the monarchy.

She was initially sentenced to 87 years, at that time the longest such sentence ever handed down, but her term was reduced b

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