Lawyer for Aisha Huang, an alleged illegal miner, has said the government is creating unnecessary hype for his client’s case.
According to (Capt Rtd) Nkrabeah Effah-Dartey, the case is quite a minor one, but how it is being handled makes it look like soo big.
In an interview with JoyNews aired on Monday, October 17, he questioned the rationale behind the presence of the Attorney-General, Godfred Dame, and the Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Samuel Jinapor, in court during the commencement of the trial.
He wondered what the two government officials could be doing in court in a matter that is of no particular value.
“Imagine a whole Minister for Lands and Natural Resources coming to the court room… to do what? Imagine the whole Attorney-General fully robed coming to court to prosecute Aisha Huang.
I” don’t want to say their physical presence was intimidatory, but I think that government is stretching this matter a bit too much,” he observed.
Aisha Huang’s prosecution
The ‘galamsey’ kingpin is currently in the custody of the National Investigation Bureau and will reappear in court on Monday, October 24.
After her last appearance on Tuesday, October 11, the Attorney-General, hinted that his office is ready to prosecute her “on a day-by-day basis.”
He said the state is willing to present its case once the trial commences.
“… for the Aisha Huang matter, we are ready to begin the trial even if we are given the opportunity next week.”
But Mr Effah-Dartey took an exception to the manner in which the state is treating the matter.
“It is most unfortunate that the two justices at the Circuit Court and the High Court have taken a different posture to our applications for bail but in a sense I cannot blame them much,” he noted.