Over 130 Galamsey Cases Ongoing

-Deputy A-G Reveals, As Aisha Haung Jailed

A Deputy Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Alfred Tuah Yeboah, has said that government is on course prosecuting illegal mining cases, numbering over 130.

Mr. Tuah Yeboah maintains that the Akufo-Addo government is committed and will ensure anybody found to be complicit in illegal mining, otherwise called ‘galamsey,’ is dealt with, as the law requires.

Addressing the media after the High Court sentenced the notorious galamsey kingpin, Aisha Huang, yesterday, the deputy minister said there are more cases against Ghanaians and their Chinese counterparts.

“There are a lot of cases in court, some of them involving other Chinese nationals, there are cases in court involving Ghanaians, and now we have over 130 cases pending, so Aisha Huang’s case is not the only case that we are prosecuting.

“We are prosecuting a whole lot of cases but maybe because of how Aisha Huang got into the system that is why her own is a different matter but we are committed to ensuring that those who have gone contrary to our laws in prospecting mining will be dealt with in accordance with the law,” he told TV3, after the court hearing on Monday December 4.

On Monday, December 4, the High Court, presided over by Justice Lydia Osei-Marfo, sentenced Aisha Huang to four and half years in prison after being found guilty of engaging in galamsey.

She was also fined GHC48,000.

The court ruled that Aisha Huang did not have a license to undertake any mining activities.

Aisha Huang was first arrested and deported from Ghana in 2018.

This was after the A-G decided to use nolle prosequi to discontinue her trial in which she was accused of engaging in small-scale mining without license. She however returned to the country to allegedly engage in galamsey again.

In October 2022, the A-G then decided to prosecute her for the alleged crimes before her deportation and new ones committed since her entry back into the country.

She had pleaded not guilty to undertaking a mining operation without a license, facilitating the participation of persons engaged in a mining operation, the illegal employment of foreigners, and entering Ghana while prohibited from re-entry.

But on May 3, this year, Aisha pleaded guilty to entering Ghana while prohibited from re-entry contrary to section 20(4) of the Immigration Act, 2000, Act 573.

Meanwhile on the same Aisha Huang case, Justice Lydia Osei Marfo said the Chinese national took advantage of Ghana’s hospitality.

“The accused person abused our kind hospitality when her first trial was truncated and she was deported to her home country. She came back this time with new personality with a different name, different date of birth,” she said.

Justice Marfo made this known while delivering her judgment on the case brought against Aisha Huang.

She was reported to have entered through the Aflao border to engage in her activities in October 2022, despite having been deported in 2018.

The state called 11 witnesses, including farmers who testified to having sold farm lands to the convict and sighted her undertaking illegal mining on the lands. Video evidence was produced by state prosecutors on the level of devastation caused by Aisha Huang.

Source: Anchorghana.com