The Thimphu District Court acquitted Penjore, a private individual, of the defamation charges filed by the police. The judgement was passed today. He was on trial at the district court accused of defaming the Office of the Attorney General through his Facebook post last year.
As per the judgement, Penjore’s Facebook post was not false. Moreover, the judgment stated that the post shared was of public interest and that he had exercised his freedom of speech.
Meanwhile, Penjore during his rebuttal had submitted that he should get compensation for the arrest and detention for 16 days in May last year. But the court denied the compensation. According to the judgement, an individual can be detained for investigation as per the Civil and Criminal Procedure Code of Bhutan.
Penjore, while sharing a BBS news article on the conviction and termination of twelve employees of Bhutan National Bank for forgery, wrote about the OAG. He wrote against the office for dropping the probable charges of official misconduct and failure to report the crime against the BNBL’s top executive members who were involved in the recruitment.
He wrote that it was a shocking bigger crime at the OAG level where OAG and BNBL’s officials colluded and dropped the probable charges forwarded by the police.
The case which was registered as a sedition case was dismissed by the District Court. The OAG then forwarded a defamation case against Penjore to the Police since it is a petty misdemeanour.
The case was registered with the Thimphu District Court in November last year.
Kinley Dem
Edited by Sonam Pem
