Magistrate Viva Nyimba who is presiding over a case in which Malawi Voice editor, Justice Mponda, is being accused of publishing damaging articles to the first family and extortion yesterday made a damning statement when he rejected a Facebook conversation as evidence in the case that had been produced by the prosecuting attorneys on the grounds that the laws of the land are silent on that.

Mponda is being accused of having written damaging stories on the first family in relation to the Cashgate scandal. He was then asked to take them down for a price tag of MK 500, 000 which he did and as he went to claim his money he was arrested for extortion.

However, Mponda has denied the claims.

The court is expected to deliver its ruling on February 18.

Mponda was arrested as well last year for sedition but he was acquitted after it was discovered that he was not the one behind the seditious material.