Aisha Huang, 4 other Chinese ‘caged’ at Nsawam Prison

For the next two weeks, the Nsawam Medium Security Prison will be the home of five Chinese who are alleged to be involved in illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey.

The five — Gao Jin Cheng, 45; Lu Qi Jun, 39; Haibin Gao, 26; Zhang Pen, 23, and En Huang, 30, a woman, also known as Aisha Huang, reported to be a kingpin in the galamsey business — were yesterday remanded into prison custody by the Criminal Division of the  Accra High Court. 

They were remanded by the court, presided over by Mr Justice Charles Ekow Baiden, to give the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) more time to conduct further investigations into the case.

That was after the GIS had requested the court to remand the five for one week, arguing that they would interfere with investigations if they were not remanded.

“Investigations are still ongoing and without the remand they will interfere with the investigations,’’ the lawyer for the GIS, Mr Peter Clever Nantuo, told the court.

“Notorious operators’’ 

No charges have been levelled against the five alleged “galamseyers” but the GIS sent them to court yesterday to meet the 48-hour deadline within which a security agency could hold a suspect.

Making his submission for remand, Mr Nantuo described the five Chinese as “notorious galamsey operators’’ whose activities had destroyed many farmlands in rural areas.

Huang, he alleged, was the brain behind many galamsey activities, while the four men were her employees.

An attempt to arrest her at her residence in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, he said, developed into a stand-off which lasted for more than four hours.

“She called some people believed to be from the Flagstaff House to come and rescue her. After much difficulty, she was arrested,’’ he said.

 

Licence

The GIS lawyer also explained that Huang, during interrogation, had claimed to have a valid licence to engage in mining related activities in the country, but the GIS was “not in a position to ascertain the genuineness of the licence’’.

He also told the court that she had refused to release the passports of two of the men who were arrested.

“That puts us in a very difficult situation as to the immigration status of the men,’’ he said.

 

Aisha Huang, also known as Yaa Asantewaa is believed to be the kingpin of the group.

  

“Deliberate delay’’

Counsel for the five Chinese, Mr Daniel Awuku, opposed the request by the GIS, arguing that it was a deliberate delay on the part of the service.

He argued that Huang was arrested at her home, not at a galamsey site, and, therefore, “it is wrong for the GIS to say that she is culpable of galamsey until proven guilty’’.

Huang, he said, was a businesswoman, married to a Ghanaian and had children who were all residing in the country.

He, therefore, prayed the court to deny the request by the GIS and rather grant her and the other four Chinese bail.

According to him, his clients would never interfere with investigations when granted bail

“They have a fixed place of abode and are ready to cooperate with investigations. They will also appear before the court whenever they are told to do so,’’ he said.

Counsel further asserted that the case had become famous due to the negative spin put on it by the media.

Remand

The court, however, rejected counsel’s argument and remanded the five into prison custody.

“I am not satisfied with counsel’s submission that his clients will not interfere with investigations. They are remanded into the Nsawam Prison,’’ Mr Justice Baiden said.

The case was adjourned to May 23, 2017.

Source: Graphic.com.gh