By Gareth Finighan UPDATED: 14:30 EST, 8 December 2011 An American has been jailed for two-and-a-half years in Thailand after posting excerpts from a banned book about the country's monarch online - while living in the U.S. Joe Gordon, 55, who was born in the Southeast Asian kingdom but has lived in the U.S. for 30 years, translated pages from The King Never Smiles - a critical biography of Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej - while living in Colorado five years ago. But when he visited the country of his birth in May to seek medical treatment for arthritis and high blood pressure, he was arrested and charged under Thailand's strict lese majeste laws.
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Car salesman arrested on a visit to Bangkok five years after committing his 'crime'
@placeholder, who celebrated his 84th birthday on Monday, is the world's longest-reigning monarch and is profoundly revered in Thailand.