$5 Fine for Tweet

A Panamanian citizen has been fined $5 for tweeting his negative sentiments about president Juan Carlos Varela.

The comment which read  ”In a very few months, I think we will see another ex-president and his cronies in El Renacer, in Punta Coco [prisons] or fleeing," was written by Eduardo Enrique Narváez Pinillois who uses the handle @edunar.

With 36,000 followers, the majority of @edunar tweets are dedicate to politicians. However one tweet, lead him to be taken away in handcuffs before the Justice of the Peace (JP) charged with insulting President Juan Carlos Varela and imposed the $5 fine. 

“I not a journalist, nor a presenter, nor a commentator nor a well-known public figure”’ he told La Estrella after being fined.

The JP requested the comments be deleted and suggested to the Twitter user that when making comments they were made within the framework of respect for human rights.