Aisha Huang
The Office of the Attorney General will on November 9, 2022, call its first witness in the case of illegal mining kingpin, En Huang aka Aisha Huang, who is standing trial for undertaking illegal mining at Bepotenten in Amansie Central District of the Ashanti Region.
The court set the date for the commencement of the trial after the prosecution successfully filed and served all disclosures, including witness statements of the witnesses they intend to call during the trial.
Aisha Huang is before the court charged with four counts of offences relating to illegal mining, re-entering Ghana illegally, employing foreign nationals, among others.
She was first arrested in May 2017, for a similar offence and was standing trial until the then Attorney General discontinued the case by entering a nolle prosequi after a decision was taken to deport her.
Court documents indicate that Aisha Huang was indeed deported in 2018, and was put on Ethiopian Airlines Flight No. Et 920, which took off at about 12:50pm on December 19, 2018 to Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia, enroute to Guangzhou-China.
She, however, managed to re-enter Ghana this year and was able to obtain the Non-Citizen Ghana Card in February, a situation which had many Ghanaians questioning Ghana’s Immigration policies and whether she was indeed deported in 2018.
She was rearrested on September 2, 2022, and charged with four new charges made up of undertaking a mining operation without a licence, facilitating the participation of persons engaged in a mining operation, illegal employment of foreign nationals, and entering Ghana while prohibited from re-entry.
Case Management
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, yesterday told the trial court that the prosecution has filed all the documents including witness statements they intend to rely on for the trial.
“We have 11 witnesses and we intend to call all of them. Some of the witnesses have audios and videos that were captured in the course of investigations that will be played during their testimonies, so we need facilities for those,” she added.
Nkrabea Effah Dartey, counsel for the accused, confirmed that he has been served with what he described as “this voluminous encyclopaedic document,” before adding “super!”
Justice Lydia Osei Marfo, the presiding judge, subsequently adjourned the case to November 9, 2022, for the prosecution to call its first witness, Reuben Ransford Aborabora.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak