Aisha's boys re-arrested

An Accra High Court yesterday revoked the bail granted to two of the Chinese illegal miners operating in the Ashanti Region for not fulfilling the bail conditions ordered by the court.

This was after the court was informed that Gao Jin Chang, 45 and Li Qi Jun, 39, who were arrested with the Chinese galamsey queen, Aisha Huang, had not submitted their passports to the court’s registrar as a condition set out in the execution of the bail.

The two – Gao Jin Cheng, Lu Qi Jun – together with Aisha Huang and two others were granted a GH¢500,000 bail with one surety two weeks ago.

Per the bail conditions, the suspects were to hand over their passports and all other travelling documents to the court’s registrar for onward transfer to the Director General of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS).

However, that order was not complied with, allowing the suspects to walk about.

A senior State Attorney, Mercy Arthur, told the court that her checks indicated that the two had failed to submit their passports to the court for onward transfer to the GIS and are walking freely.

The presiding judge, Justice Charles Edward Ekow Baiden, did not find the development flattering.

He questioned how the two suspects were released when they had not met the bail conditions.

“I am asking you, how you managed to get them free, even though they failed to meet the bail conditions. You an officer of the court could have applied for variation when you were faced with a challenge?” he queried the suspects’ lawyers.

He then rescinded the bail granted the two, directing that they be re-arrested and taken back to the Nsawam Prison where they had been kept prior to their being granted the bail.

Justice Baiden ordered that they remain in the prisons until they are able to submit their passports as directed earlier.

Defence counsel for the two, Kwame Owiredu, who was being led by Ellis Owusu Fordjour, told the court that the GIS was aware that the two had lost their passports.

Mr Owiredu told the court that the very day the two were arrested, they told immigration officials that their passports were missing.

The court, however, revoked the bail and remanded the two accordingly.

Meanwhile, En Huang aka Aisha, and the other accused persons, have been able to execute their bail conditions.