Pop star Madonna and her husband, British filmmaker Guy Ritchie, were granted the right to permanently adopt David Banda by a court in Malawi.
"All I can say is that the adoption has been given. Madonna can go ahead and adopt the child," the couple's lawyer, Allan Chinula, said following the ruling by the High Court in Malawi's capital Lilongwe.
The couple obtained custody of David, then 13 months, in October 2006 under an 18-month interim adoption order.
The court ordered that they will be allowed to firm up the adoption after receiving a favourable report from the Ministry of Women & Child Development on their care for the infant at their London home over the past 19 months.
The government had bypassed its own laws banning adoptions by non-residents in granting the couple custody of David, who was given up for adoption by his father on the death of his mother. Two Malawian rights groups had opposed the government's breach of procedure but have since withdrawn their objections.
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