187 persons jailed over illegal mining in Eastern Region since 2017 – Attorney-General
A total of 187 persons charged in 48 cases have been convicted and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment in the Eastern Region since 2017.
Giving the breakdown to the media, the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, indicated that all the cases were conducted by the Eastern Regional Office of the Attorney-General headed by a Chief State Attorney, Emily Addo-Okyireh.
“The Attorney-General noted that the 187 convicted persons include twenty-nine (29) Nigeriens, seven (7) Nigerians and 3 Chinese,” the A-G said.
The majority of the accused persons, the A-G stated were tried under the old section 99 of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703).
It would be recalled that the Chief Justice designated the High Court 3 and Circuit Court B in Koforidua as courts to deal with illegal mining cases.
The A-G in a statement said most of the cases were tried in Circuit Court B, Koforidua presided over by Her Honour Mercy Adei-Kotey who is currently a Justice of the High Court.
Section 99(1) of Act 703 prescribed a penalty of a minimum fine of three thousand penalty units or imprisonment for a term of not more than five years for the offence of buying or selling minerals without a licence.
For the offence of undertaking a small-scale mining operation without a licence or acting in contravention of a provision of Act 703, section 99(2) stipulated a penalty of a minimum fine of one thousand penalty units or imprisonment for a term not more than three years.
The A-G said in spite of these provisions, its office ensured that the maximum custodial sentences allowed under the law or close to the maximum custodial sentences were imposed on the accused persons for 40 out of the 48 cases its office charged on accused persons.
According to the A-G, the court also exercised its discretion to impose a fine in 8 of the cases.
The Attorney-General indicated that of the 48 cases tried in the Eastern Region since 2017, and in respect of which convictions have been secured, only one is on appeal with “confidence about the chances of the Republic in the appeal”.
He noted that there are currently about 24 new cases pending at Circuit Court B in Koforidua.
Mr Dame, however, expressed displeasure with the decision of the Circuit Court in 5 of the cases involving the trial of 47 persons, which were filed before the passage of Act 995.
These cases were determined after the Act had come into force to impose sentences between three years and five years on the accused persons.
“In the view of the Attorney-General, the substitution of the former section 99 of Act 703 with a new section 99 under Act 995 implied that a court of law engaged with the conduct of a case pending before it, was obliged to apply the new penalties provided for by the law rather than applying the old penalties existing under the law which was no longer in force.”
He indicated his resolve to resort to higher courts to ensure that the 47 accused persons serving what he considers to be “softer prison terms under the old section 99 of Act 703 are punished under the new section 99 brought into being by Act 995.”
The Attorney-General indicated that an update on the prosecution of illegal mining cases in other regions, particularly, Ashanti, Western and Greater-Accra Regions will be provided in due course.
Convictions under the new Minerals and Mining Act
33 of the convicted persons were sentenced under the new Minerals and Mining (Amendment) Act, 2019 (Act 995) between August 2021 and September 2022 and are currently serving various prison terms of 15 years, 20 years and18 years together with fines imposed in the various cases in which they were convicted.
These include11 foreign nationals.
The new Minerals and Mining Act increased the term of punishment for buying and selling minerals without a license to a minimum of fifteen years imprisonment and a maximum of twenty-five years for a Ghanaian together with a fine of a minimum of ten thousand penalty units and not more than fifteen thousand penalty units.
In the case of a non-Ghanaian, punishment for the same offences increased to a term of a minimum of twenty years imprisonment and a maximum of twenty-five years together with a fine of a minimum of one hundred thousand penalty units and not more than three hundred and fifty thousand penalty units.
Source: Ghana News
