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Following her arrest after she reportedly sneaked into Ghana to again engage in illegal mining activities, more details are emerging about the Chinese national, En Huang, popularly known as Aisha Huang.

She was deported to her home country, China, in 2018. 

It has however emerged that she has been carrying what is suspected to be a Ghana Card which she claim to have obtained in February 2022. Details on the said card, labeled as a Non Citizen Identity Card has the date of issue as February 27, 2022 and expected to expire on February 26, 2023.

It has her name as En Huang on it and it was found in her possession when she arrested, Graphic Online has gathered.

She was deported from Ghana to China in 2018 after she was linked to a series of illegal mining activities in the Ashanti Region.

By that, she escaped prosecution for the alleged illegal mining activities she was earlier arrested for.

It has emerged this week that she is back in Ghana, allegedly obtaining a Togolese visa to fly into Togo, and then sneaked into Ghana under a different name - Huang Ruixia.

Court 

Last week, she was arraigned at an Accra Circuit Court with three others for allegedly engaging in illegal mining in Ghana. The accused persons were charged for engaging in sale and purchase of minerals without a licence.

The other three are Jong Li Hua; Huang Jei and Huiad Hiahu, all Chinese nationals. En "Aisha" Huang is facing an additional charge of engaging in mining without a 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.

They have all been remanded in police custody.

Monday’s Proceedings

While the three other suspects were arraigned Monday, September 5, 2022, Aisha Huang was absent, reports Graphic Online's Justice Agbenorsi who was in the courtroom. They have all pleaded not guilty to the charge and have been remanded into custody to reappear on September 14, 2022.

Prosecution’s facts

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.

According to the prosecution, 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 selling mining equipment and dealing in gold without a valid licence in Accra.

They were arrested upon intelligence by National Security officials. They are expected to re-appear before the court on September 14,2022.

Background

She had 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).

more to follow…