Aisha Huang: Passage of time won’t affect AG’s appeal – Lawyer

A private legal practitioner, Lawyer Yaw Dankwuah has stated that the ruling by the judge on Aisha Huang was right.

This comes on the back of the Office of the Attorney General (AG) serving notice to appeal against the four-year and six-month custodial sentence imposed on galamsey kingpin, En Huang also known as Aisha Huang.

On Monday, December 4, the High Court in Accra presided over by Justice Lydia Osei Marfo delivered her judgment on En Huang and handed her both a custodial sentence and a fine of GHc48k.

The decision of the judge to impose the sanctions under the revoked Mining and Mineral Law Act 900 instead of the new law Act 995 has raised some eyebrows.

A day after the judgement, Godfred Yeboah Dame, the Attorney General said though they applaud the decision of the High Court to impose a sentence under the revoked law, his office would test the law by filing an appeal.

Commenting on the AG’s possible appeal on Starr Today with Joshua Kodjo Mensah, the private legal practitioner stated that passage of time does not matter in criminal cases.

“Passage of time does not matter, in criminal law passage of time doesn’t change anything. It’s the day the offence happens. As a matter of fact, in a proper jurisprudence let’s say if she has been trialed and the new law actually has a softer punishment there will be nothing wrong to apply the new law. The credit must go to the accused person.

“This is justice, somebody has committed an offence and at the time of committing that offence there was a prescribed law but you are telling me that at the time of coming to the sentencing, that law has been repealed. So you should punish him with the new law, no, it doesn’t work like that,” lawyer Dankwah stated.

He said maybe the Attorney General thinks that the judge could have used the new law.

“But my personal view, my professional and legal view honestly, I think the judge did right,” lawyer Dankwah reiterated.