Photo: Twitter

A former Kelowna man has been arrested in Nepal over alleged provocative posts on Twitter against social harmony.

Robert Penner has been prolific online, often weighing in on political controversies. After Nepal passed a new constitution last year, he questioned a citizenship provision that was seen as discriminatory against women.

The Kathmandu Post online edition reported Monday that a team of Nepal police arrested Robert Penner in the southern district of Lalitpur on the request of Immigration Department. Lalitpur district police chief Pitambar Adhikari said Penner was arrested after complaints were filed that he posted tweets that would incite social discord.

However, Penner tweeted after his arrest that he has "repeatedly asked Nepal police" to explain the charges against him, but they won't say. He also tweeted that Nepal Immigration said they planned to hold him overnight.

Penner has been living in Nepal for more than three years working as as software engineer at The Cloud Factory. He spoke with Castanet in April of 2015, giving insight to the aftermath of a 7.8 earthquake in Nepal.

He told of his upscale neighbourhood in Kathmandu shaking, power outages lasting hours, and thousands living in the streets following the quake.

Penner took to Twitter and Facebook over the last 24 hours posting about the arrest.

“Nepal Immigration released me after 26 hrs in custody, cancelled my working visa & gave me 2 days to leave Nepal. Thanks to all supporters.”

“I made a goal this year to get published in the The New York Times. I submitted an op-ed pitch about earthquake relief corruption a few months ago but it didn't work out. But there's this.”  Then he added a link to a New York Times article on his arrest.

Recently, he criticized the detention of Kanak Mani Dixit, a journalist who was arrested last month.

According to Penner’s Facebook page he hasn’t slept and is swamped with replying to questions regarding his arrest. He currently remains in Nepal and it is unclear if he will be leaving the country, or if Kelowna will be his next destination.