“Galamsey Queen” Aisha Huang convicted, fined and sentenced to 4 years in prison

The High Court presided over by Justice Lydia Osei Marfo, has convicted, fined, and sentenced En Huang, aka Aisha Huang, to four years in prison for undertaking mining operations without a license and for entering Ghana while prohibited from re-entry.

According to Justice Lydia Osei Marfo’s court, the state in the case of the trial produced sufficient evidence to show that the accused, Aisha Huang, undertook mining operations in Ghana without the required licensing regime to do the same.

The court, in essence, convicted the accused person of all four charges leveled against her by the Attorney General.

The Attorney General (AG), Godfred Yeboah Dame, took over the file of Aisha En Huang from the police in November 2022, after she was found and rearrested in Ghana several years after she was deported from the country.

The AG subsequently slapped her with four charges, for which she was tried.

Throughout her trial, Aisha Huang was denied bail and was remanded in prison custody. She was brought to court by prison officers every time her case was up for hearing.

The first charge against Aisha En Huang was “undertaking a mining operation without a license, contrary to Section 99(2)(a) of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006, Act 703.

The state’s argument in respect of the first charge was that “on or before February 2015 and May 2017,” [Aisha Huang], without a license from the Minister responsible for  Mines, “undertook mining operations at Bepotenten in the Amansie Central District of the Ashanti  Region.

 

The second charge is “facilitating the participation of persons engaged in a mining operation contrary to sections 99(2)(a) and (3) of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006, Act 703, as amended by the Minerals and Mining (Amendment) Act, 2019.

On this charge, the state contended that En Huang Aisha, a Chinese, between February 2015 and May 2017, facilitated the participation of Gao Jin Cheng, Lu Qi Jun, Haibin Gao, and Zhang Zhipeng in mining operations without a license from the Minister responsible for Mines to conduct the mining operations at Bepotenten in the Amansie Central District of the Ashanti Region.

The third count according to the charge sheet was “illegal employment of foreign nationals contrary to Section 24 of the Immigration Act, 2000, Act 573.”

The state contends that En Huang Aisha, in May 2017, illegally employed four Chinese nationals, namely Gao Jin Cheng, Lu Qi Jun, Haibin Gao, and Zhang Zhipeng, to work at an illegal mining site in the Amansie Central District of the Ashanti Region.

The last charge is “entering Ghana while prohibited from re-entry, contrary to Section 20(4) of the Immigration Act, 2000, Act 573,” with the state contending that on September 2, 2022, En Huang Aisha was arrested in Kumasi and found to have re-entered Ghana when she knew she had been barred from entering Ghana.