A man has been arrested for inciting "financial panic" after he posted a Twitter message.

Jean Ramses Anleu Fernandez urged people in Guatemala to boycott a bank in the aftermath of a political scandal.

He was arrested at his home in Guatemala City and had his computer seized. In his tweet under his twitter name '@jeanfer' he proposed that people "withdraw cash from Banrural and break the bank of the corrupt".

He tagged the message with '#escandalogt' - referring to the alleged murder of prominent lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg.

Political unrest was sparked by Mr Rosenberg's death on Sunday and the publication of a video in which he accused President Alvaro Colom, his wife and his personal secretary of ordering the killing.

"If at this moment you are hearing or watching this message, it is because Alvaro Colom assassinated me," Mr Rosenberg says in the 18-minute tape, which has been widely viewed in Guatemala.

Mr Rosenberg, 48, who received graduate training at Cambridge and Harvard Universities, represented Khalil Musa, a leading Guatemalan industrialist who was shot dead with his adult daughter on April 15.

Mr Rosenberg also accused President Colom of responsibility for the murder of Mr Musa, alleging that he was killed because he refused to co-operate in corrupt business deals operating within the structure of Banrural, a partly state-run bank. Musa had been appointed by President Colom to the board of Banrural.

According to reports, Anleu Fernandez faces fines of up to 6,000 US dollars (£3,950) and three years in prison. He was arrested under a law against those who "elaborate, divulge or reproduce in any media or communication system, false or inexact information which harms the confidence of customers, users, depositors or investors".

Other users of Twitter have resent his original message and begun circulating a campaign to free him and donate funds.

A quotation from Martin Luther King, "Our Lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter", is also being circulated on Twitter.

Like many Central American countries, Guatemala is used as both a bridge and a storage spot by illegal drug cartels moving cocaine from South America to markets in the United States and Europe.

President Colom took office in January 2008. Foreign Minister Haroldo Rodas has condemned Mr Rosenberg's killing and vehemently rejected charges of Mr Colom's involvement.

José Amilcar Velasquez Zarate, the Attorney-General, said that he was handing the Rosenberg case over to the UN-supported International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala to guarantee its independence.

"We have no interest in hiding anything, or anyone," Mr Velasquez said. "We want to get to the bottom of this investigation"

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