THE Standard editor, Mark Chavunduka, and chief writer, Ray Choto, have lodged an application with the Supreme Court challenging the validity of the Law and Order Maintenance Act (Loma) under which the two are being charged for allegedly causing “alarm and despondency”. Chavunduka and Choto were arrested, illegally detained, and tortured in January this year by agents of the state after the paper published an article alleging that 23 members of the Zimbabwe National Army had been arrested for inciting their colleagues to overthrow the government of President Robert Mugabe. If the Supreme Court rules in their favour, the charges laid against the newsmen will automatically fall away.