Canadian arrested in Nepal over Twitter posts

Nepal Police on Monday said they have arrested Canadian national Robert Penner from near Kathmandu for his provocative posts on Twitter against Nepal's "social harmony".

Though his arrest was requested by the Department of Immigration for some interrogation, the exact reason behind his arrest was not clear.

"Nepal Immigration says they are holding me overnight. I repeatedly asked Nepal Police to tell me under what charges they are taking me in but they won't say," Penner tweeted.

According to Lalitpur district police chief Pitambar Adhikari, Penner was arrested after complaints were filed that his posts on the social networking site would incite social discord.

Immigration Department Director General Kedar Neupane acknowledged that police were requested to arrest Penner.

The Canadian has been living and working in Nepal for the past three years as principal scientist at Cloud Factory, which provides on-demand, digital workforce to various enterprises.

Recently, he had been posting tweets on various issues of Nepal, including the Terai/Madhes agitation.

He also posted a controversial tweet over the arrest of journalist Kanak Mani Dixit by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority.

(Anil Giri can be contacted at girianil@gmail.com)

--IANS

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