A Chinese national Huang Ruixia alias Aisha Huang, has been remanded for allegedly engaging in illegal mining in Ghana, along with three others, by Accra Circuit Court.
The other three are Jong Li Hua; Huang Jei and Huiad Hiahu, all Chinese nationals.
The accused persons were slapped with two charges; for engaging in sale and purchase of minerals without a licence and mining without licence.
She was arraigned last Friday September 2, 2022 and her plea to the charges are yet to be taken by the court presided over by Bright Acquah since the court had no Chinese interpreter at the time.
According to Graphic Online’s Justice Agbenorsi who was in the courtroom, while the three other suspects were arraigned yesterday, September 5, 2022, Aisha Huang was absent.
The accused have all pleaded not guilty to the charge and have been remanded into custody to reappear on September 14, 2022.
According to the facts presented by the prosecutor, Detective Chief Inspector Frederick Sarpong, Aisha Huang had previously escaped prosecution in Accra when she was arrested.
According to the prosecutor, she returned to her country, China and changed her identity only to come back to Ghana to commit the same crime of which she escaped prosecution earlier.
The suspect applied for a Togo visa and went through the borders into Ghana and back to the galamsey business in a town in the Ashanti Region.
The three others with her, according to the prosecutor, were arrested upon intelligence by National Security officials for selling mining equipments and dealing in gold without a valid licence in Accra.
The Chinese illegal mining “queen,” was deported in December 2018.
That followed the filing of a nolle prosequi to discontinue the trial by state prosecutors.
She had then been charged with three counts of undertaking small-scale mining operations, contrary to Section 99 (1) of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703); providing mining support services without valid registration with the Minerals Commission, and contrary to the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703), and the illegal employment of foreign nationals, contrary to the Immigration Act, 2000 (Act 573).
