The Attorney General has pressed four charges against the notorious Chinese illegal miner, En Huang, popularly known as Aisha Huang, replacing the previous two charges leveled against her.
The charges span between 2015 and 2017 including her re-entry into Ghana.
Again, the case has been moved from the Circuit Court to the High Court for the trial to commence there.
Principal State Attorney, Mercy Arthur filed the four charges against Aisha Huang at the High Court today Friday September 16, 2022.
Per the charge sheet, she was said to have undertook a mining operation at Bepotenten in the Ashanti Region between 2015 and 2017 without licence contrary to Section 99(2)(a) of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006, Act 703, as amended by the Minerals and Mining (Amendment) Act 2019, Act 995.
Again, she has also been charged for facilitating the participation of four Chinese to mine at Bepotenten without licence contrary to Section 24 of the Immigration Act, 2000, Act 573 of employing foreign nationals to mine in Ghana.
The State also pressed immigration charge against her after she had re-entered Ghana contrary to Section 20(4) of the Immigration Act, 2000, Act 573.
News of Aisha Huang’s re-arrest in Ghana after she was reportedly deported somewhere in 2018 for her involvement in illegal mining commonly called galamsey left many shocked and disappointed.
Prior to her deportation, many Ghanaians called for her to rather be jailed.
However, her prosecution came to a halt after she was supposedly deported in 2018 after the state filed nolle prosequi
She was re-arrested on Friday, September 2.
According to reports, Aisha Huang came to Ghana from a neighbouring country land border, Togo.
Upon her arrival, she also acquired a Ghana card in February 2022 with a new name, Huang En.
She was subsequently charged together with three others who are currently facing two charges at an Accra Circuit Court.
They were slapped with two charges namely: mining without a licence, and engaging in the sale and purchase of minerals without a valid licence.
The accused persons have been denied bail at the Circuit Court when they appeared for the second time on Wednesday, September 14 as they were remanded into police custody to reappear on Tuesday, September 27.
This follows request for her case docket on the previous offences by the office of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, last week after she was re-arrested for committing similar offences.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had expressed uncertainty about her deportation in a radio interview saying that “When you have the situation like this woman [Aisha Huang]…I am not still sure whether she was in fact deported or whether she fled the country the first time and has now come back or whatever but there still seems to be some uncertainty about it,” he said in a radio interview while on tour in the Volta Region.
“Whichever way it is, she’s become the sort of nickname for all that galamsey represents and unfortunately also for the involvement of Chinese nationals in Ghana in this particular illicit trade,” he stated on Ho-based Stonecity Radio.
Subsequent to that President Akufo-Addo has also backed the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice to prosecute persons found to be engaging in illegal mining in the country.
Speaking at the 2022 Bar Conference of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) last Monday, he noted that since the onset of the 4th Republic, some 29 years ago, Ghana has witnessed the longest period of stability and economic growth in our sixty-five (65) years of nationhood.
According to the President, during this period of the 4th Republic, “we have witnessed sustained growths in the size of the economy; rising levels of per capita real incomes; systematic expansion of the private sector.”
He noted also that, in the period of the 4th Republic, we have “taken strong measures to try to protect our lands, water bodies and the environment from the menace of environmental degradation and climate change; ensured that efforts to meet the most basic elements of social justice, i.e. education from kindergarten through to secondary school, and accessible healthcare to all our citizens, are ongoing.”
President Akufo-Addo, to this end, assured members of GBA “of my full support to the Attorney General in his determination to prosecute Aisha Huang and her collaborators, who, apparently, insist on flouting our laws against galamsey and illegal mining.”
The President continued, “I expect if they are found guilty, that the courts will apply the full vigour of the new amended Act 995, which has increased substantially the punishment for breaches of the law.”
By Vincent Kubi