The magistrates court sitting in Blantyre this afternoon has just acquitted Malawi Voice editor, Justice Mponda, on extortion charges he was being accused of by the state as propagated by the first family.

Mponda was arrested on the grounds of extortion after it was alleged that he had been promised half a million to take down a story that connected the first family to the Cashgate scandal.

It was said that the first family through a member of the PP executive, Joseph Chikwemba, contacted Mponda to take down the story in exchange for half a million and Mponda really did the act but instead of being paid he was arrested by the police where he had gone to collect his money.

The state had hired two private lawyers to prosecute Mponda who had been locked up behind the bars for over a week just after his arrest before being charged or taken to court.

Through the hearing it was established that the case of the state was built on an alleged Facebook conversation between Chikwemba and Mponda which was dismissed on the grounds that Malawian laws are silent on the use of Facebook in a court of law as evidence for or against someone.

This was the second time for Mponda to be arrested and in all arrests he has been acquitted.