Attorney General moves to prosecute Aisha Huang

• Posted on September 7, 2022September 7, 2022
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, has called for the docket on the Chinese illegal mining “Queen,” En Huang, alias Aisha Huang, from the police for onward prosecution.

According to the Attorney General, he will initiate prosecution against the Chinese galamsey queen Huang, in respect of her current alleged offences as well as those of 2017 before her deportation from Ghana in 2018.

The Ministry tweeted that “The Attorney-General has called for the new docket on En Huang aka Aisha, regarding offences she is suspected to have recently committed. The A-G will also re-initiate prosecution in respect of the old offences for which she was standing trial before her deportation in 2018.

“There shall be a full prosecution for her alleged new and past offences.”

Currently, an Accra Circuit Court has remanded the Chinese national Huang Ruixia alias and three others for allegedly engaging in illegal mining in Ghana.

She has been charged for engaging in sale and purchase of minerals without a licence together with three others namely, Jong Li Hua; Huang Jei and Huiad Hiahu, all Chinese.

Aisha Huang is facing an additional charge of engaging in mining without a licence.

She was arraigned last Friday September 2, 2022 but her plea was not taken by the court presided over by Bright Acquah since the court had no Chinese interpreter at the time.

Shockingly, while the three other suspects made appearances last Monday, September 5, 2022, Aisha Huang was absent.

They have all pleaded not guilty to the charge and have been remanded into custody to reappear on September 14, 2022.
After re-entry into the country in February this year she got herself a Ghana card.

The fact of the case presented by the prosecutor, Detective Chief Inspector Frederick Sarpong stated that Aisha Huang had previously escaped prosecution in Accra when she was arrested.

According to the prosecutor, she returned to her country [China] and changed her identity only to come back to Ghana to commit the same crime of which she escaped prosecution earlier.

According to the prosecution, the suspect applied for a Togo visa and went through the borders into Ghana and back to the galamsey business in a town in the Ashanti Region.

The three others with her, according to the prosecutor, were selling mining equipment and dealing in gold without a valid licence in Accra.

They were arrested upon intelligence by National Security officials.

They are expected to re-appear before the court on September 14, 2022.

Aisha Huang was deported in December 2018 after the state had filed a nolle prosequi to discontinue the trial by state prosecutors.

She was charged with three counts of undertaking small-scale mining operations, contrary to Section 99 (1) of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703); providing mining support services without valid registration with the Minerals Commission, and contrary to the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703), and the illegal employment of foreign nationals, contrary to the Immigration Act, 2000 (Act 573).

Meanwhile, the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) has revealed that Aisha Huang could be jailed for two years for unlawful re-entry into Ghana.

According to the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Service, Michael Amoako-Atta, if she is found to have breached immigration regulations, she will be put behind bars for that long.

“If she is convicted on immigration rules, she may go in for about two years,” DSI Amoako-Atta stated, adding that “That is what the law says.”

Aisha Huang, after her deportation to her home country China in 2018, is said to have gone for a visa from neighbouring Togo and re-entered Ghana under a different name.

“Currently, we are now building the case because her mode of entry is one that we all want to clarify.

“Then what she got herself engaged in will have to be looked into and then we can build a proper case against her,” he added.

By Vincent Kubi