Godfred Yeboah Dame, the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, has expressed his displeasure with the relatively light prison sentence and fine that an Accra High Court imposed on Aisha Huang, a Chinese criminal mining kingpin.
Aisha Huang was sentenced under Act 900 by the trial judge, which Mr. Dame expressed confusion over in a press release issued on Tuesday, December 5.
He accepted with critics who claimed that the Chinese national’s GH₵48,000 fine and four and a half-year prison sentence did not correspond to the magnitude of her acts as defined by Act 995.
He accepted with critics who claimed that the Chinese national’s GH₵48,000 fine and four and a half-year prison sentence did not correspond to the magnitude of her acts as defined by Act 995.
“Whilst applauding the efficiency of the justice delivery system witnessed in the trial of Aisha Huang, the Attorney-General will however test the soundness of the decision of the trial court to punish the accused person under Act 900, by filing an appeal at the Court of Appeal, against the sentence in order to ensure that the new sentencing regime imposed by Act 995 is applied to the accused person.”
Interestingly, the judge who sentenced Aisha Huang, Justice Lydia Osei Marfo, stated that she would prefer a harsher sentence if she had the authority. Justice Lydia Osei Marfo clarified during her ruling on Monday, December 4, that the prosecution of the Chinese national was carried out under Act 900, which previously stipulated a maximum penalty of five years for engaging in mining activities without a license.
She noted that the limitations of the Act prevented her from imposing a heftier sentence.
“I wish I had the right to impose the punishment under the current law,” Justice Lydia Marfo noted before giving her sentence.
The Chinese national, who went by En Huang, was charged with running a mining operation without a license, helping people get involved in mining operations, hiring foreign workers illegally, and entering Ghana while being barred from returning.