The Magistrate of the Sefwi Wiawso District Court, His Worship Eric Baah Boateng, has ordered Chief Inspector George Asante Noye, a prosecutor in a case of the arrest of 10 illegal miners to produce documentary evidence of the death and subsequent cremation of two Chinese nationals at the next sitting, scheduled for 15th April 2024.
On 12th December 2023, staff of the Forestry Commission arrested 10 persons engaged in illegal mining in the Krokosua Hills Forest Reserve.
The 10 suspects included four Chinese nationals and six Ghanaians, two of whom were policemen.
Their names were given as: Men Shi Yu, 30; Weng Yong Cheng, 30; Wen FU Lin, 58; and Lee Pin, 60, all Chinese.
The Ghanaians were Edward Owusu, 25; Kwesi Frank ,42; Abudu Dramani, 41; and Joe Nabur, 27.
The two police officers involved were Detective Sergeant Yahaya Andrews and Lance Corporal Azantillow.
The 10 suspects were subsequently processed for court and they had appeared in court on two occasions.
At the court’s third sitting on 15th March 2024, when the case was called, only the six Ghanaians, including the two policemen were present. The four Chinese nationals were all absent.
The Magistrate questioned the Prosecutor on the whereabouts of the four Chinese nationals, to which the latter responded that two of them had died and had since been cremated.
His Worship Eric Baah Boateng then ordered the Prosecutor to bring the sureties for the four Chinese nationals to Court at the next sitting to produce documentary evidence of the death and subsequent cremation of the two Chinese nationals for the court’s next line of action.
The case, which was adjourned to 15h April 2024, has also been forwarded to the Attorney General’s Department in Takoradi for advice.