Galamsey Queen defies bail terms

En Huang aka Aisha Huang, the 31-year-old Chinese lady, who is standing trial at an Accra high court over alleged illegal mining (galamsey) in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, has not fully complied with the terms of her bail, a state attorney has told the court.

Watkins Adama, the attorney who is prosecuting the accused and four other Chinese, told the court that although Ms Huang and her accomplices want to create the ‘false impression’ that they have dutifully and fully complied with the terms of grant of bail, that is not the case.

He was speaking to an affidavit in opposition to an application filed by counsel for the accused illegal miners and asked the court to vary some of the terms of bail for the five Chinese nationals.

Aisha Huang, and four other Chinese were arrested by the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) in Kumasi and brought to Accra for trial following the suspicion that they were illegally operating a mining concession.

She was granted bail by the court in June 2017 in the sum of GH¢500,000 with two sureties to be justified.

The four others – Gao Jin Cheng, 45; Lu Qi Jun, 39; Habin Gao, 26 and Zhang Pen, 23, were also granted bail in the sum of GH?500,000.00 with one surety each who must be a Ghanaian by birth. Each surety is to be justified.

As part of the bail conditions, all the accused persons are to report twice a week to the Inspector General of Police or the Director of Immigration in Accra or their representatives, in writing.

They were also ordered to hand over their passports to the registrar of the court to be sent to the Director of Immigration or the IGP.

Their lawyer last week filed the application praying the court to allow the five accused persons to report to the Ashanti Regional Police Commander and the Regional Immigration boss instead of travelling from Kumasi to Accra all the time.

According to him, that aspect of the bail bond had brought untold hardship to his clients, both financially and physically since they have to spend so much on hotel bills and transportation.

But Mr. Adama, who strongly opposed the application, argued that the applicants had not shown any document to the court to substantiate their claim as to how much they had spent on transportation, hotel bills and other expenses as they wanted the court to believe.

“There is nothing before the court to show that they reported to the authorities on these dates, spent so much money on hotel bills, transportation, yet they want the court to find favours with them. These are mere averment by the applicants without any proof which begs the question wherein lies the basis of the application?” he argued.

He said the case was being tried in Accra and all the investigators involved in the matter are all based in Accra, adding that there is nothing pending in Kumasi for which reason Aisha and her accomplices should be made to report to the authorities in Kumasi.

He therefore prayed the court to dismiss the case but averred that should the court grant the application, then it should only vary the reporting time and not the place or venue.

The presiding judge, Justice Abdulai Idrisu, after listening to the two counsels, adjourned the case to December 6, 2017 to rule on the application.