Supreme Court dismisses State’s Supreme Court of Appeal Justice Ivy Kamanga has thrown out State’s application to stay High Court’s ruling that referred to the Constitutional Court Joshua Chisa Mbele’s criminal defamation case.

In her ruling delivered Friday afternoon in chamber in Lilongwe, Justice Kamanga has described the application as baseless and lacks merit.

In an interview, Chisa Mbele’s lawyer Gilbert Khonyongwa says the ruling means certification of the matter by the Chief Justice as a constitutional case will proceed.

He said: “The court has ordered that within two months we should try to push that the Chief Justice should consider handling the issue of the certification.

“The court has thrown out State’s application to have the stay discharged, the court has said it is frivolous, vexatious and baseless, basically the state shouldn’t have done that.”

The accused, who was arrested in January this year, is answering charges bordering on criminal libel and publication of offensive communication.

Meanwhile, Senior State Advocate Limbikani Msiska has told Yoneco FM that the State is looking forward to arguing its case when the High Court is empanelled as a Constitutional Court.

“The State actually has no reaction to this, as State will argue its case when the High Court sits as a Constitutional Court in this matter,”Msiska said.

In the matter, the State is alleging that the Chisa Mbele in or around 10 January 2022 through a posting published on his Facebook page unlawfully defamed and disturbed the peace of General Vincent Nundwe by implying that he corruptly benefitted money amounting to K4 billion from deal with Zuneth Sattar.

Judge Nyirenda has since reserved his ruling on the objection application to October 3, 2022.