Nkrabeah Effah-Dartey, lead counsel for galamsey kingpin, Aisha Huang, has accused the Attorney General of allegedly using the Ghana Bar Conference to call for support of the judiciary for the successful prosecution of the matter.
Admitting he was not present at the conference, he indicated he has been told Godfred Dame Yeboah said the corpoeration of the Judiciary is required to keep the accused in custody.
In court on Wednesday, he described the comments as unfortunate if they were true, stating they must be condemned.
He prayed the Court not to give room for public speculation of influence of the Executive on the matter.
“In the light of that, the decision to refuse bail gives credence to what is being said and it is most unfortuante,” he said.
The lawyers for Miss Huang and three accomplices accused of engaging in mining without a license, on Wednesday morning made a strong case for her to be granted bail.
Also, they raised concerns about what they believe to be unfair treatment meted out to Miss Huang by state security during her repatriation in 2018 and the fresh arrest.
“I was defending Aisha Huang at High Court Criminal 1 then on the day that we were supposed to open our defence, the Attorney General entered a nolle prosequi which means don’t prosecute.
“Then the Attorney General took my client away from the court and the next thing I heard, she had been flown out of Ghana and I didn’t understand why they did not allow us to finish the case and today we are being told in court she sneaked out of Ghana which is false,” he fumed.
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State Prosecutors in a bid to shoot down the bail request claimed Miss Huang had a habit of sneaking in and out of the country.
But in a rebutal, the former Interior Minister and Berekum MP insisted this is a case the international community was monitoring and a grant of bail will send the right signal.
“Let the law work on the facts before you. I pray you admit each of them to bail. We know that if you admit them it doesn’t mean they are innocent,” he pleaded.
The court presided over by His Honour Samuel Bright Appiah, however, reasoned that the matter had become an issue of public interest at home and abroad.
He, therefore, remanded the accused back into custody to reappear on September 27, 2022.
Listen to lawyer Effah-Dartey in the audio above: