Since 2017, 187 people who were accused of engaging in unlawful mining have been found guilty and given a variety of prison sentences in the Eastern Region, according to Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Godfred Yeboah DameAccording to the breakdown given to the media by Godfred Yeboah Dame, the Eastern Region office of the Attorney-General, which is run by Chief State Attorney Mrs. Emily Addo-Okyireh, handled all the cases.
The High Court 3 and Circuit Court B, Koforidua, were designated by the Chief Justice as the courts to handle matters involving illegal mining, and the Office of the Attorney General brought all instances involving illegal mining to its attention for prosecution.
The majority of the cases were heard in Circuit Court B, Koforidua, under the direction of Her Honor Mercy Adei-Kotey (as she was known at the time), who is now a Justice of the High Court.
The Attorney General noted that 29 Nigerians, seven Nigerians, and three Chinese citizens are among the 187 people who have been found guilty.
Most of the defendants were tried and sentenced under the previous version of Section 99 of the Minerals and Mining Act of 2006 (Act 703). For the offense of purchasing or selling minerals without a license, Section 99(1) of Act 703 imposed a minimum fine of 3,000 penalty units or a term of imprisonment of not more than five years.
Section 99(2) of Act 703 stipulated a minimum fine of 1,000 penalty units or to imprisonment for a time of not more than three years for engaging in small-scale mining operations without a license or acting in violation of a provision of Act 703 with respect to which an offence is created.
Despite this clause, the Office of the Attorney-General was able to ensure that the accused were given the maximum jail sentences permitted by law, or close to it, in forty (40) of the 48 cases mentioned above, with the court exercising its discretion to impose a fine in eight of the cases.
Convictions since 2021 – New Law
Between August 2021 and September 2022, 33 of the guilty parties were found guilty and sentenced under the new Minerals and Mining (Amendment) Act, 2019 (Act 995); they are currently serving a variety of prison terms of 15 years, 20 years, and 18 years as well as fines imposed in the various cases in which they were found guilty.
There are 11 foreign nationals among them.
The Akufo-Addo administration pushed for the passage of Act 995 in 2019, which strengthened the penalties for buying and selling minerals without a permit and starting a mining operation without a permit to a term of at least 15 years in prison and a maximum of 25 years for a Ghanaian, as well as a fine of at least 10,000 penalty units and not more than 15,000 penalty units.
Act 995 increased the penalty for the same offenses when committed by a non-Ghanaian to a minimum of twenty years in jail and a maximum of twenty-five years, as well as a fine of at least 100,000 penalty units and a maximum of 350,000 penalty units.
in some situations, dissatisfaction with the sentence However, Mr. Dame voiced his displeasure with the Circuit Court's decision to sentence the accused to between three and five years in prison in five of the cases involving the trial of 47 people that were filed before Act 995 was passed but that was decided after the Act took effect on August 19th, 2019.
This, he claimed, is illegal because Act 995 replaced the punishment scheme established by Act 703 with a new scheme that enhanced the penalty for participation in illicit mining operations and mineral trade.
The Attorney General believed that the replacement of the previous section 99 of Act 703 with the new section 99 under Act 995 implied that a court of law engaged in the conduct of a case it was hearing was required to apply the new penalties provided by law rather than the old penalties provided by the law that was no longer in effect
In order to ensure that the 47 accused people serving what he perceives to be lenient jail terms under the old section 99 of Act 703 are punished under the new section 99 created by Act 995, he announced his intention to turn to courts further up the judicial architecture.
43 new cases involving 250 people are pending, but there is only one appeal.
Only one of the 48 cases that have been tried in the Eastern Region since 2017 and for which convictions have been obtained is now on appeal, according to the Attorney General.
However, he is optimistic about the Republic's chances of winning the appeal.
Additionally, he mentioned that there are now roughly 43 new cases at Circuit Court B in Koforidua that involve the trial of about 250 people.
Among the 250 people currently facing trial are foreigners, some of them are Chinese.
cases from different areas
An update on the prosecution of illicit mining cases in additional regions, specifically Ashanti, Western, and Greater Accra Regions, was promised by the Attorney General.
