A-G Exposes ‘Galamsay Queen’

The Attorney General (A-G) is accusing Aisha Huang –the 31-year-old Chinese woman facing illegal mining (galamsey) charges of breaching her bail conditions.

According to Watkins Adamah, Senior State Attorney, Aisha is only creating the impression as though she had complied with the terms of her bail when she knows “that is not the case.”

Lawyers of Aisha had filed a motion at the court praying it to vary aspects of the bail conditions that requires her and the other accused persons to report to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Director of Immigration twice every week in Accra although they are all resident in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.

Benard Owereku Donkor, who is lawyer for the accused person however wants the court to make an order directing the accused persons- Gao Jin Cheng, 45; Lu Qi Jun, 39; Haibin Gao, 26; Zhang and Zhang Pen, 23, to report to the Ashanti Regional office of the said institutions instead of commuting to Accra twice every week.

He had argued that the issue is taking physical and financial toll on his clients, urging the court to consider its earlier order.

But Adamah representing the AG in a response to the motion for variation of the bail conditions stated that Aisha and the other accused persons are only in his words “creating a false impression that they have dutifully and fully complied with the terms of the grant of bail.”

He noted that the court ought not to vary the bail conditions because there was no case pending in Kumasi for which reason the applicants should be made to report there.

Adamah argued that further investigation into the case by the police and immigration officers are all being undertaken in Accra adding that “the case has everything to do with Accra and nothing to do with Kumasi”.

On the claim that the bail condition is a drain on the finances of the applicants, the AG posited that there was no evidence before the court in that regard.

In the view of Adamah, there was nothing to show that the applicants reported (to the IGP and Immigrant Director), rented hotels, paid so much in terms of hotels bill among others but yet “they want the court to favour them.”

“Ultimately, this is a call on you to exercise your discretion which we are confident will be exercised in accordance with Article 296 of the 1992 Constitution” he said.

The Senior State Attorney added: “it is our prayer the court would exercise its discretion in our favour and dismiss this instant application by the Applicants”.

Adamah however, held that if the judge, Justice Iddrisu Abdullai was minded in granting the request of the applicants, “the court may perhaps only vary the reporting time and not the reporting venue”.

The court has nonetheless set December 6 to deliver its decision.

According to the charge sheet dated May 23, 2017, all the five had been charged with the offence of “undertaking small-scale mining without authority contrary to Section 99 (1) of the Mining and Minerals Act.”

Aisha has been slapped with a second charge which reads, “Providing Mine Support Services without valid registration with the Minerals Commission.”

She is facing an additional charge of Illegal employment of foreign nationals contrary to Section 24 of the Immigration Act, while the four others face the charge of disobedience of directive given by or under the Immigration Act, 2000.

All of them, speaking through a Ghanaian-Chinese interpreter, have denied the charges preferred against them by the State.

Source: Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson/ thePublisher