GUATEMALA CITY — Jean Anleu was so fed up with corruption in his country that he decided to vent on the Internet, sending a 96-character message on the social-networking site Twitter.
That message has now earned him a potential five-year prison sentence.
Writing under his Internet alias "jeanfer,” Anleu urged depositors to pull their money from Guatemala’s rural development bank, whose management has been challenged in a political scandal: "First concrete action should be take cash out of Banrural and bankrupt the bank of the corrupt.”
These words illegally undermined public trust in Guatemala’s banking system, according to prosecutor Genaro Pacheco. Authorities proved Anleu sent the message by searching his home, and then put him in prison for a day and a half before letting him out on bail.
Anleu’s lawyer, Jose Toledo, believes the government wants to make an example of him.
Pacheco said prosecutors plan to charge Anleu in July under a 2008 law that provides for five years in prison and a $6,200 fine for spreading false information that undermines the public’s trust in a financial institution.
by the associated press
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