The Attorney General’s Department has filed four charges against Chinese galamsey businesswoman En Huang, popularly known as Aisha Huang, over her offfences between 2015 and 2017 as well as her re-entry into Ghana.
The docket for her previous offences were requested by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice early this month after she was re-arrested for committing similar offences prior to 2018.
Her prosecution was, however, truncated after a nolle prosequi was filed by the state.
She was said to have been deported to her home country afterwards, a move on which doubts have been cast, especially recently after President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo expressed uncertainty in a radio interview.
“When you have the situation like this woman [Aisha Huang]…I am not still sure whether she was in fact deported or whether she fled the country the first time and has now come back or whatever but there still seems to be some uncertainty about it,” he said in a radio interview while on tour in the Volta Region.
“Whichever way it is, she’s become the sort of nickname for all that galamsey represents and unfortunately also for the involvement of Chinese nationals in Ghana in this particular illicit trade,” he stated on Ho-based Stonecity Radio.
On Friday, September 16, the Principal State Attorney, Mercy Arthur, headed to the High Court and pressed four charges against her.
The first is that she undertook a mining operation at Bepotenten in the Ashanti Region between 2015 and 2017 without licence contrary to Section 99(2)(a) of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006, Act 703, as amended by the Minerals and Mining (Amendment) Act 2019, Act 995.
The second offence is facilitating the participation of four Chinese to mine at Bepotenten without licence.
This also makes her fall foul of Ghana’s laws as she employed foreign nationals contrary to Section 24 of the Immigration Act, 2000, Act 573.
Finally, she had re-entered Ghana contrary to Section 20(4) of the Immigration Act, 2000, Act 573.
She was arrested on Friday, September 2.
Already, Aisha Huang and three others are facing two charges at an Accra Circuit Court.
On Wednesday, September 14 they were remanded into police custody to reappear on Tuesday, September 27.
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com|Ghana