The four foreigners who were arrested for allegedly engaging in illegal mining in the country without licence have been re-arraigned before an Accra High Court after they were discharged by an Accra Circuit Court.
The two Russians and two Ukrainians were discharged by the Circuit Court which did not have the jurisdiction to try the case.
FaridIsaev, Vadim Potokin, SerhiiChepurniy – all engineers – and Genady Rubec, a site manager, are before the High Court for refusing to comply with a ‘stop work’order given by the Inspector of Mines contrary to Sections 102 (1) (g) and 106 (i) of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 Act 703 as amended.
When the case was called yesterday, private legal practitioner, Emmanuel Kofi Amoakoh, who represented the accused persons, told the lower court granted bail to the four whose passports were in the possession of the police.
He said the four alleged illegal miners have been very forthcoming and obedient to the lower court and prayed the high court to grant them bail without necessarily adding a Ghanaian surety.
Ameley Agyemang, a Senior State Attorney who was holding the brief for another Senior State Attorney, Mercy Arthur, told the court that her instructions were to arraign the four accused persons without their pleas taken.
She told the court that the Attorney General’s Office was not opposed to the granting of bail, but the court must make the bail conditions such that the accused persons would not abscond and avail themselves for the trial.
She recounted a case involving some Syrians who absconded after they were granted bail although their passports had been seized.
She said the accused persons were arraigned before the court, and later transferred to another court, which has been designated for mining offenses.
The presiding judge, Justice Kofi Dorgu, granted the four bail in the sum of GH?500,000 each with two sureties– one to be justified.
He further ordered that their passports remain in the custody of the police, while the accused are to report to the case investigator once every Thursday of the every week.
Justice Dorgu also ordered the accused persons to submit passport-sized pictures to the court’s registrar for easy identification.
The case has been adjourned to March 9, 2018.
FaridIsaev, Vadim Potokin, Serhii Chepurniy and Genadiy Rubec, are said to have mined about 500 acres of land instead of 75 acres originally given them by the Lands Commission at Tontokrom in the Amansie West District of the Ashanti Region.
Their arrest was ordered by the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, John Peter Amewu, during his tour of mining sites in the Ashanti Region.
By Gibril Abdul Razak