Godfred Yeboah Dame
Bearing last minute changes, the Attorney General (AG) and Minister for Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame will today level fresh charges against the Chinese illegal miner, EN Huang otherwise known as Aisha Huang.
The charges against Miss Huang, is in respect of her current offence as well as those she committed before her deportation from Ghana in 2018.
The Attorney General assured that he will initiate prosecution when he called for the case docket from the Police.
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 in Ghana as galamsey left many shocked and disappointed.
Prior to her deportation, many Ghanaians called for her to rather be jailed.
However, the Senior Minister at the time, Yaw Osafo Maafo, justified the decision, arguing that jailing the galamsey queen had diplomatic consequences for Ghana in its quest for economic support from China.
Reports indicate that Aisha came to Ghana from a neighbouring country through a land border, Togo.
Upon her arrival, she also acquired a Ghana card in February 2022 with a new name, Huang En.
Aisha Huang, has been slapped with two charges: mining without a licence, and engaging in the sale and purchase of minerals without a valid licence.
The Accra Circuit Court 9 had denied the galamsey queen bail.
The notorious illegal miner is standing trial with three other Chinese nationals; Jong Li Hua, Huang Jei and Huaid Hai Hun, all charged with mining without a valid license and engaging in the sale and purchase of minerals without a permit.
The Prosecution said it needed time to finish off the investigation when they last appeared in court on September 14.
Already, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has 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