Aisha Huang and other suspects
AN OFFICER of the Ghana Immigration Service has told an Accra High Court that En Huang aka Aisha Huang, a Chinese national facing trial for undertaking illegal mining in the Ashanti Region, speaks fluent English and Twi.
Superintendent of Immigration David Essien, said it was for this reason that he did not require the services of an interpreter when he took a statement from her in 2016 and 2017 when he was tasked to ascertain her immigration status at the time.
He was answering questions under cross-examination by Nkrabea Effah Dartey, counsel for Aisha Huang, who has been charged for undertaking illegal mining at Bepotenten in Amansie Central District of the Ashanti Region.
She has also been charged for illegally re-entering Ghana following her repatriation in 2018 when she was arrested in May 2017, and put on trial for a similar offence of illegal mining.
Among the four charges is the restoration of the charge of illegal employment of foreign nationals contrary to section 24 of the Immigration Act, 2000, Act 573, which was one of the charges she was facing during her first trial.
Aisha Huang since her appearance before the trial court had required the services of an interpreter, and the court on one occasion had to adjourn the case due to the unavailability of Chinese language interpreter that day.
But Supt Essien, who is the prosecution’s second witness, said all his interactions with the accused were in English, as she spoke fluent Twi as well.
“When you were taking the statements, was there an interpreter or translator,” Mr. Dartey asked.
“No my Lord, I will explain. When I was taking the statements there was no interpreter. Before that, I am the same person that delivered the invitation letter to the accused. And on the point of delivery, I had a one-on-one interaction with the accused and we spoke in English. My Lord, when she honoured the invitation, during the interview, we spoke in English and she responded in English and my Lord, she was very fluent in English. She even speaks fluent Twi. So my Lord, at the point we were taking the statement, she didn’t give us any indication that she needed an interpreter. And everything she understood it before appending her signature,” the witness said.
He, however, indicated that he did not inform Aisha Huang that the statements would be used in court because they only invited her “to ascertain her immigration status and also listen to her side of the story on the allegations made against her in the media publication concerning her illegal activities at Bepotenten in the Amansie Central.”
Supt Essien also told the court that there are similarities between the two statements, as she gave similar information about her background and her activities at the mining site.
Mr. Dartey then asked the witness if it is his case that it took the Ghana Immigration Service three years to investigate Aisha Huang’s marital status before her eventual repatriation in 2019. The witness said yes.
“You will bear with me that depending on the level of the case, investigations can take an hour, days, years or decades for crime to be detected. That notwithstanding, the service was able to detect the crime. That is the most important thing,” he added.
“As far as you are concerned, you don’t have specific points of facts against the accused on mining operations. Correct?” the lawyer asked.
Supt Essien said the accused had indicated in her statement that she rented excavators to Egyiri Mining Company, which has a mining concession at Bepotenten.
He said he invited one of the directors of the company by name Coxton Ahinkan Egyiri, who denied that the company rented excavators from the accused, and instead indicated that he had known her for three years and she used to mine on a concession that shares boundary with their small-scale mining concession.
The witness added that Mr. Egyiri further stated that Aisha Huang, whose mother is also a director at Egyiri Mining had leased three acres of their concession to the accused to mine out of which the accused has failed to pay them as promised.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak