Lilongwe Senior Resident Magistrate Wanangwa Nyirenda has quashed an application by social media influencer Joshua Chisa Mbele to dismiss a case in which the police are pushing for revocation of his bail for flouting some of the bail conditions.
Last week, defense lawyer Gilbert Nkhonyongwa, asked the court to throw out the application arguing that the state did not follow rules guiding the tendering of documentary evidence.
In his argument, Nkhonyongwa said the evidence brought by the state is inadmissible because instead of bringing primary evidence (the gadgets from which the posts were extracted) the state brought printed copies which is secondary evidence.
Delivering ruling on the application for case dismiss, the presiding magistrate agreed with the defense that state was supposed to tender primary evidence in the first place, however, he did not find a reason enough to dismiss the case since State prosecutor Levison Mangani highlighted that they are ready to demonstrate that the text really existed.
The court has ordered that from today Tuesday to Friday, the state should surrender for inspection gadgets from which they extracted Facebook screenshots that are being used as evidence that Mbele breach his bail conditions.
The case has since been adjourned to Friday 2 o’clock in the afternoon.
Mbele was arrested in January this year on charges of criminal libel and publication of offensive communication.
