Interpreter stalls killer Chinese trail

THE TRIAL of 42-year old Chen Shicai, a Chinese national who admitted to killing another Chinese man at Hotel Koreana at Community 12, Tema, by the Tema Circuit Court ‘B’ was on Thursday, adjourned again because an interpreter could not be provided to help with the trial.

Chen Shicai had appeared before the same court on Monday, April 23, 2013 to answer charges of alleged car snatching from their owners in the Ashaiman municipality.

The court presided over by Bart Plange-Brew had to adjourn the case because the suspect, according to prosecution, could not speak the English language and an interpreter could not be readily provided.

The plea of Chen Shicai who was believed to have been charged with carjacking, as a result of the absence of the interpreter, has still not been taken by the time DAILY GUIDE left the circuit court on Thursday.

He has therefore been remanded into police custody by the court to appear on a later date by which time an interpreter might have been provided to aid with the trial process.

The suspect, according to prosecution, arrived in the country on April 16, 2013, and was arrested by a police night patrol team at about 3:00am around the Ashaiman traffic light area when he tried to snatch a second taxi from its owner after he was earlier involved in an accident with the first taxi he snatched from its owner.

Chief Inspector Matilda Tetteh, a prosecutor, explained to the court that police had contacted the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China to Ghana in Accra to help provide an official who could help with interpretation. She prayed the court to adjourn the case since no one from the Chinese Embassy had come to court to assist with the interpretation.

She informed the court the suspect who has appeared before another Tema Court for murder has his case adjourned by that court to another date so as to allow investigators handling that case enough time to arrange for an interpreter. She prayed the court to also adjourn the case to coincide with that date in order for the same interpreter help with the trial.

A certain Guo Xiaoyu, a consul with the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Ghana had earlier visited a police station where the accused person is being held and was said to have indicated that he would be in court to help with interpretation but failed to do so.

Several phone calls to his mobile phone went unanswered including a few from DAILY GUIDE who wanted to know what might have caused his absence from court.

Chen Shicai, after his arrest by the police night patrol team, was later identified as the man who allegedly shared a hotel room with another Chinese national who was found dead in a pool of blood in that hotel room. He was said to have admitted killing the 52-year old deceased whose name was mentioned as Huang Long Xiang, a small scale miner who was based at Dunkwa-on-Offin.

The deceased reportedly travelled from his based with his driver, a Ghanaian, to Accra where they picked the suspect from the Kotoka International Airport to Hotel Koreana in Tema Community 12.

Even though it has not been established why Chen Shicai murdered the small scale miner, it was reported that he did so as a result of an argument the suspect and the deceased had over a blanket in their hotel room.