Galamsey Queen will face full prosecution for new and past offences – AG assures
Attorney General Godfred Yeboah Dame has assured that Chinese ‘Galamsey Queen’ Aisha Huang will face prosecution for new and past offences.
A tweet from the AG’s office said it will re-initiate prosecution against Miss Huang regarding her current alleged offences and those of 2017 before her deportation from Ghana in 2018.
To ensure an expedited trial, the Attorney General’s office has thus requested for the case docket on Huang En, also known as Aisha Huang, from the police.
The 47-year-old Chinese is currently standing trial with three others at the Accra Circuit Court for selling and purchasing minerals without a license.
Per the facts, early this year, Aisha “sneaked” into Ghana, having changed the details on her Chinese passport.
The suspect is said to have applied for a Togo visa and went through the borders into Ghana.
Aisha then resumed small-scale mining activities without a license and further engaged in the purchase and sale of minerals in Accra without valid authority as granted by the Minerals and Mining Act.
Her return has sparked outrage following her deportation to China in 2018 over similar charges.
Two environmental activists have urged the Attorney General and Inspector General of Police (IGP) to ensure that all foreigners engaged in illegal mining are brought to book.
The activists also want an update on the number of foreign nationals who have been arrested and deported for engaging in galamsey so far and what their status is at the moment.
Again, they want to know what measures have been put in place to ensure that people do not engage in illegal mining in Ghana.
The Ghana Environmental Advocacy Group and A Rocha Ghana raised these concerns in a petition.
“To read that those arrested end up quietly deported to their home countries with their loot without any further consequences while the state and local communities are left to reel under the weight of the environmental degradation they leave behind is both unconscionable and irresponsible,” the petition stated.
They, therefore, want the AG and IGP to crack the whip on illegal mining.