A fresh case has been filed at the Accra High Court by the Attorney-General (A-G), Godfred Yeboah Dame, against En Huang, aka Aisha Huang, a Chinese national who has gained notoriety in illegal mining activities, which is popularly known among locals as galamsey, in Ghana.
The A-G filed four criminal accusations against the ‘galamsey queen, which if found culpable, could spend a maximum of 20 years imprisonment or could be fined up to 30,000 penalty units, an equivalent of GH¢360,000.
En Huang has, nonetheless, pleaded innocent of all four criminal charges, including entering Ghana while prohibited from re-entry and undertaking a mining operation without a licence levelled against her.
She also pleaded not guilty to facilitating the participation of persons engaged in a mining operation, contrary to section 99 (2)(a) & (3) of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006, Act 703, as amended by the Minerals and Mining (Amendment) Act, 2019, Act 995, as well as illegal employment of foreign nationals, contrary to section 24 of the Immigration, Act, 2000, Act 573.
Her plea was taken by the Criminal Division ‘5’ of the Accra High Court on Friday, 16th September 2022.
The court, presided over by Justice Lydia Osei Marfo, in a virtual session, remanded Aisha Huang into police custody and adjourned the case to October 12.
Brief Facts
Mercy Arthur, Principal State Attorney (PSA), narrated to the court that on May 5, 2017, at about 12:00 pm, officers of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), Obuasi Municipal Command, arrested four male Chinese nationals, namely Gao Jin Cheng, Lu Qi Jun, Haibin Gao and Zhang Ziupeng, who were actively engaged in an illegal mining site at Bepotenten in the Amansie Central District of the Ashanti Region.
She said upon their arrest, the four Chinese nationals told the arresting officers that they were sent to mine at the site by Aisha Huang and that their passports were with her in Kumasi.
According to him, the arresting officers sent the four persons, first to the Obuasi office of the GIS, and subsequently to the Kumasi office.
She added that Huang, upon receiving the information about the arrest of her alleged Chinese employees, proceeded to the Regional Immigration office in Kumasi even before the arresting officers reached the Ashanti Regional capital.
PSA Arthur continued that after a while, Aisha left upon realising that the suspects were yet to be brought to the GIS Kumasi office, but was later called back to report with the alleged miners’ passports.
“With great difficulty, En Huang eventually produced the passports of only Haibin Gao and Zhang Zhupeng. The visas of these two arrested persons showed that they came to Ghana on B-1 visas (business visas), which did not qualify them to be engaged in any type of work in the country.
“They were, however, engaged by En Huang to undertake mining operations without the requisite licences at Bepotenten,” she stated.
The prosecutor added that investigations disclosed that En Huang took possession of several farmlands for mining, and eventually destroyed crops, sources of drinking water, and access routes to these farms, as well as the livelihoods depending on these for survival.
Madam Arthur said Aisha was earlier arraigned before the Accra High Court on related charges of illegally undertaking a small-scale mining operation contrary to section 99 of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006, Act 703, and illegal employment of foreign nationals contrary to sections 24 and 52 (1) (d) of the Immigration Act, 2000, Act 573.
However, she said, on December 19, 2018, the Attorney-General entered nolle prosequi and terminated the trial, and on the same day, the Comptroller-General of the Ghana Immigration Service revoked her permit to remain in the country indefinitely, ordered her immediate repatriation to China, and directed her to stay out of Ghana until the Comptroller-General approved of her future re-entry into Ghana.
Furthermore, Aisha was put on an Ethiopian Airline flight No Et 920, which took off at about 12:50 pm on December 17, 2018, to Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia, en route to Guangzhou, China.
The court was told that her flight seat No 32 F (Economy Class) and her travel documents were handed over to the Captain of the flight to be handed over to her upon arrival at her final destination, Guangzhou, China.
But contrary to the directive issued by the Comptroller-General under section 20 (2) in the Immigration Act, 2000, Act 573, State Security agents received the information that she had re-entered Ghana and was subsequently arrested on September 2, 2022 in Kumasi.
The court was further informed that this re-entry was in total defiance of the clear order of the Comptroller-General of December 19, 2018.
Upon her arrest, En Huang had in her possession two Chinese passports, one in the name of En Huang and the other in the name, Huan Ruixia, both of which had her photographs.
