Aisha Huang angry with court for refusing her bail
The thought of spending another week in prison made En Huang, popularly known as Aisha Huang, the alleged Chinese kingpin in the illegal mining business (galamsey), to lose her cool at the Criminal Division of the Accra High Court yesterday.
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She reacted angrily by banging her fist hard on her seat after the court adjourned ruling on a bail application by her lawyers to June 2, 2017.
The banging was followed by intermittent shedding of tears as the alleged galamsey kingpin kept throwing her arms about, apparently asking her lawyers why she had to spend another week at the Nsawam Medium Security Prison.
Aisha and four of her compatriots — Gao Jin Cheng, Lu Qi Ju, Haibin Gao and Zhang Zhipeng — have been on remand since May 9, 2017, with their lawyers making frantic efforts to secure them bail.
After listening to the various arguments for and against the bail application by the legal team of the five Chinese and state lawyers, respectively, the presiding judge, Mr Justice Charles Ekow Baiden, stated that he had to consider all the legal arguments raised by both sides.
He, accordingly, adjourned the case to June 2, 2017 and further ordered that the five alleged galamseyers be sent back into prison custody to reappear before the court for the ruling on that day.
Aisha is sick
Counsel for the five Chinese, Mr Jerry Akuetteh, pleaded with the court to use its discretion to grant his clients bail, arguing that they would always appear before the court to defend themselves against the charges levelled against them.
On Aisha, he argued that there was the need for the court to grant her bail because she had “an urgent medical condition which required urgent attention and regular reviews by doctors’’.
He was also of the view that the five Chinese had served the purpose of their remand because the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) requested for a one-week remand for it to conduct further investigations into the case.
“The court, in its wisdom, however, remanded them for two weeks, which is ample time for investigations to have been completed,’’ counsel said.
Mr Akuetteh cited the Supreme Court decision on May 5, 2016, which gave all competent courts of jurisdiction the discretion to grant or refuse bail, adding: “The court’s hands are, therefore, not tied to grant bail.’’
Medical care in prison
In her response opposing the bail application, a senior state attorney, Ms Mercy Arthur, argued that it was not necessary to grant Aisha bail on health grounds because she would be provided with medical care while in prison custody.
“Since she is on remand, prison officers will assist her to enable her to have health reviews and also take her medications,’’ she said.
She also argued that the medical record which Aisha was using as a basis for bail was dated January 15, 2016, but there was no record that she had had any review since then.
Charges
Earlier, the state had officially charged the five accused persons with two immigration offences and two other offences under the Minerals and Mining Act.
The charges were: undertaking small-scale mining operations, contrary to Section 99 (1) of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006, (Act 703), and providing mine support services without valid registration with the Minerals Commission, contrary to Section 59 and 99 (2) of the Minerals and Mining Act.
The rest are illegal employment of foreign nationals, contrary to Section 24 of the Immigration Act, 200 (Act 573) and Regulation 18(1) of the Ghana Immigration Regulations, 2001 (L.I.1691), and disobedience of directive given under the Immigration Act 2000 (Act 573).
Presenting the facts, Ms Arthur informed the court that Aisha had a mining concession at Bepotenten in the Amansie West District in the Ashanti Region and also operated a mining support services company.
The four other accused persons, she said, were employed by Aisha to work at the mining site.
The senior state attorney added that checks at the Minerals Commission, however, revealed that Aisha had no licence to operate either a mine or a mining support services company.
She told the court that the visas issued to all the five Chinese by the Ghana Embassy in Beijing, China, did not allow them to work in Ghana.
En Huang, waiting in the Immigration bus, to be transported back to the Nsawam Prison on remand.