Aisha Huang
‘Galamsey Queen’, En Huang, popularly known as Aisha Huang, has been given another one week by an Accra High Court to file her witness statement in a trial in which she is accused of illegal mining and providing mining services as a foreigner.
The court presided over by Justice Lydia Osei Marfo, on June 15, 2023, ordered Aisha to open her defence after it found that the prosecution had made a sufficient case against her to warrant a defence.
The court subsequently dismissed a submission of no case to answer motion filed by her lawyers and ordered her to file her witness statement and that of any witnesses she intended to call by July 3, 2023.
But appearing before the court, her counsel, Hope Agboado, told the court that they were unable to file the witness statement because they could not obtain the court’s ruling on the submission of no case to answer so as to address the issues raised by the court.
“Our intention was to address the factual queries raised in the court’s ruling delivered on the 15th of June, 2023. Unfortunately, we have not been able to procure a copy of the ruling since. We humbly wish to make a prayer to the court to make a copy of the ruling available to us and grant us leave of one week from today within which to file the witness statement of the accused as ordered earlier,” Mr. Agboado pleaded.
Justice Marfo granted the request and said a copy of the ruling would be made available to counsel. She subsequently adjourned the case to July 10, for case management conference.
Trial
Aisha Huang, who is before the court for illegal mining charges, has already been convicted for illegally returning to Ghana after she changed her initial not guilty plea to guilty following a plea bargain with the Office of the Attorney General.
She is standing trial for undertaking illegal mining and also facilitating mining activities at Bepotenten in the Amansie West District of the Ashanti Region, as a foreigner contrary to the Minerals and Mining Act.
If found guilty, she could be fined for up to GH¢4.2 million or sentenced to an imprisonment term of 25 years. The court also has discretion to impose both the fine and the imprisonment sentence at the same time.
AG’s Case
The prosecution, led by the Director of Public Prosecution, Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, in pushing to establish the guilt of Aisha Huang, called 10 witnesses including farmers who told the court that they sold their farmlands to Aisha Huang, 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.
He further told the court that Aisha Huang’s illegal mining activities caused damages to residents of Bepotenten, “who could not have access to clean drinking water all because of the illegal mining activities of Aisha Huang on the concession.”
Mathew KwablaAbotsi, 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.
According to him, he saw the accused at a mining site which was taking place on a footpath residents used to their farms when he followed up on a complaint about her encroaching on the footpath.
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.
“The response from the Minerals Commission established that the accused person’s company did not have any licence or authorisation from the Minerals Commission to undertake any small-scale mining operation or to even render mine support service to any person or group,” the retired officer told the court.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak