Aisha Huang
Illegal mining kingpin, En Huang, popularly known as Aisha Huang, yesterday opened her defence before an Accra High Court where she denied ever engaging in illegal mining or providing mining support to either Ghanaians or foreigners.
The accused, who was already convicted for illegally returning to Ghana after her repatriation in December 2018 and awaiting sentencing, yesterday told the court that both the charges levelled against her and the evidence given by the prosecution’s 11 witnesses be dismissed as not true and “just trumped-up versions of old ones.”
According to her, neither she as an individual nor her company, Golden Asia, located in Kumasi was engaged in mining or provided mining assistance to anyone, as the company was not licensed to do so although that was the object of setting up the company.
Aisha Huang 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.
The prosecution, led by the Director of Public Prosecution, Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, in pushing to establish the guilt of Aisha Huang, called 11 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.
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 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.
Defence
The accused, in her defence, averred that she lived at Ahodwo in Kumasi from 2011 until she was deported in December 2018, where she operated a supermarket popularly known as Aisha Supermarket and had a predominantly Chinese customer base.
She said by virtue of her long stay in Ghana and interaction with Ghanaians, she has beginner’s appreciation of the English language for her daily routine in Ghana and this had made her popular among the Chinese people who visited Kumasi, as most of them could not speak or understand English or the Twi language.
She said she became a point of reference and the go-to person to Chinese nationals and some state institutions, including the Ghana Immigration Service.
Aisha Huang indicated that it was by virtue of this that she was contacted when four Chinese nationals were arrested on a mining site in Kumasi.
According to Aisha Huang, neither she nor her company employed any of the four Chinese to mine for them, and she only had the passports of two of the four because they gave them to her to enquire about renewing them after they expired.
Aisha Huang also denied purchasing the farmlands of some of the prosecution witnesses who told the court that they sold their farms to her for mining and she failed to pay the full fee agreed upon, thereby resulting in a law suit.
“Neither myself nor my company Golden Asia own or hired any excavators, a chanfan or the other earth-moving machines allegedly found at the sites the four Chinese men were arrested,” the accused asserted.
The case has been adjourned to July 17, 2023, for the prosecution to cross-examine her.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak