Aisha Huang
En Huang, the Chinese national noted for undertaking illegal mining (galamsey), was yesterday sentenced to four and half years imprisonment by a High Court in Accra for her illegal activities.
The convict, who is popularly known as Aisha Huang, and earned the nickname ‘Galamsey Queen’, was also fined a total of GH¢48,000 by the court after the Office of the Attorney General successfully proved its case against her.
The court, presided over by Justice Lydia Osei Marfo, also ordered that Aisha Huang be deported to her home country of China after serving the prison sentence.
Aisha Huang, who illegally returned to Ghana through Togo after her repatriation in December 2018, was standing trial for undertaking illegal mining, facilitating the participation of persons in a mining operation, illegal employment of foreign nationals and entering Ghana while prohibited from re-entering.
She pleaded not guilty to all the charges when she was put before the court in November last year, but changed her plea and pleaded guilty to re-entering Ghana illegally in May 2023, after the prosecution had begun calling its witnesses.
Amended Act
The court was compelled to hand her the four and half years jail term because at the time she committed the offence between 2015 and 2017, the maximum sentence under Minerals and Mining Act 2006, (Act 703) for illegal mining was five years.
The Act has since been amended by the Minerals and Mining Act (Amended), 2019 (Act 995), which enhanced the maximum sentence to 25 years, but the court could not have imposed that as it would be a retrospective application of the law which is frowned upon by the constitution.
AGs Case
The prosecution led by the Director of Public Prosecution, Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, in pushing to establish the guilt of Aisha Huang, called 11 witnesses including farmers who told the court that they sold their farmlands to the accused who had destroyed the farmlands as a result of illegal mining.
Nana Sarfo Prempeh, the prosecution’s third witness, in his evidence-in-chief, told the trial court that the accused has caused what he described as “wholesale damages” to farmers whose farms were destroyed as a result of her illegal mining activities.
Mathew Kwabla Abotsi, the Assemblyman for Bepotenten Electoral Area in the Amansie Central District, also insisted on seeing Aisha Huang at the galamsey site where she employed workers to mine illegally.
ASP Charles Adaba (rtd), one of the investigators in the matter, in his testimony, also told the court that the accused had no permit to mine or undertake any mining support services in Ghana, and this was confirmed by the Minerals Commission.
Aisha Huang’s Defence
Aisha Huang, in her defence, told the court that neither she as an individual nor her company, Golden Asia, located in Kumasi was engaged in mining or provided mining assistance to anyone, as the company was not licensed to do so although that was the object of setting up the company.
“Neither myself nor my company Golden Asia own or hired any excavators, a chanfan or the other earth-moving machines allegedly found at the sites the four Chinese men were arrested,” she asserted.
Findings
Justice Marfo, in her judgement, held that the prosecution had successfully proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and the evidence before the court could not be circumstantial because the farmers who testified all confirmed either dealing with the convict personally or seeing her at the mining sites.
She also indicated that Aisha Huang is not a truthful person as she contradicted herself in her statements to the Immigration officers, Police investigators as well as her own witness statement before the court.
The court also found that Aisha Huang changed the identity of her husband whenever she saw it fit to do so to carry out her illegal activities.
“After weighing the evidence of the accused against the evidence of prosecution witnesses, exhibits tendered and eyewitness accounts of prosecution witnesses, I find that the prosecution was able to establish a case against the accused person beyond reasonable doubt on all the counts,” Justice Marfo added.
Plea For Mitigation
Her lawyer, Miracle Attachey had pleaded with the court not to impose a custodial sentence as that would only put more economic burden on the state, which would have to take care of her in prison.
He urged the court to impose a fine on her and then deport her to her home country of China.
This plea was rejected by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, who said Aisha Huang’s activities had caused devastating damages to communities where she mined.
“We wish that she will be sentenced to the maximum sentence provided, a fine and deportation order after she has finished serving her sentence,” she added.
Sentencing
Justice Marfo, in sentencing Aisha Huang, indicated that if she had her way she would have sentenced the convict under the new Act because of the impunity with which she carried out her illegal mining activities.
“The accused person abused our kind hospitality when her first trial was truncated and she was deported to her home country. She came back this time with new personality, different name, different date of birth,” she said.
She sentenced Aisha Huang to four years and six months on the charges of mining illegally and facilitating others to mine illegally, and fined her GH¢36,000 for same. A failure to pay the fine results in another four and half years prison term.
She also sentenced the convict to another 12 months for the charges of illegally employing foreign nationals and re-entering Ghana illegally, and was fined GH¢12,000 for same offence.
The sentences are to run concurrently so she will spend four and half years in prison but will pay the entire GH¢48,000 fine.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak