The 11th prosecution witness in the trial of Aisha Huang has testified that the accused forged documents to obtain a residential permit.
According to the witness, Superintendent Divine Ahumah Ocansey, an officer of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), Huang forged her marriage certificates to acquire permits.
Ms Huang has been charged with undertaking a mining operation without a licence, facilitating the participation of persons engaged in a mining operation, the illegal employment of foreigners and entering Ghana while she had been prohibited from re-entry.
Evidence-in-Chief
Explaining further, Superintendent Ocansey told the Court that the accused, who is also known as En Huang, was admitted into the country on May 28, 2010, and was granted a 30 days visitor’s visa.
The witness noted that Aisha travelled in and out of the country on visitor’s visas until she obtained a dependent permit on November 25, 2010, as the wife of Mr Anthony Fabien, a Ghanaian.
The dependent permit, he said, restricted the accused from working in the country but was renewed on April 28, 2015, when she obtained an indefinite residence permit as the wife of Anthony Fabien.
The 11th witness added that En Huang conducted mining operations at Bepotenten where she engaged the services of Lu Qi Jun, Gao Jin Cheng, Habin Gao and Zhang Zhipeng to mine at the mining site where the four Chinese nationals were arrested by the Obuasi GIS District Command on May 5, 2017.
Untrue report
During investigations, the witness explained that Aisha told security officers that she was not mining but rather rendering mine support service to one Aunty Maggie at her concession at Bepotenten, adding: “But this was found to be untrue.”
“Following the arrest of En Huang, the process leading to her acquisition of the indefinite residence permit was reviewed and it was found that most of the documents supporting her application like the Ghana passport biodata pages of Anthony Fabien and the marriage certificate of her alleged marriage to Anthony Fabien were forged.
“The Passport Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Births and Death Registry, Accra, did not have any records on the accused person’s husband, Anthony Fabien,” he added.
Accused
En Huang has been accused of being deeply involved in illegal mining, commonly called galamsey, especially in the Ashanti Region.
She was deported from the country in 2018 after the state decided to discontinue her trial, in which she was accused of engaging in small-scale mining without a licence.
However, she was said to have sneaked back into the country to allegedly engage in the same activities.
The Attorney-General, then, decided to prosecute her for the alleged crimes before her deportation and new ones committed since her return to the country.
It is the case of the prosecution that Huang had an illegal mining concession at Bepotenten in the Amansie West District in the Ashanti Region and also operated a mining support services company.
She has denied the charges levelled against her and has since been remanded in police custody.
