A former national chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Freddie Blay, has expressed his law firm’s readiness to defend some four Chinese standing trial over their involvement in illegal mining (galamsey).
The four, Gao Jin Cheng, Lu Qi Jun, Haibin Go and Zhang Zhipeng are accomplices of renowned galamsey queen, Aisha Huang, who is being prosecuted by the state for the same crime.
Mr Blay whose law firm represented the Chinese in court Tuesday said the four Chinese nationals deserve full legal representation in court.
“They came to instruct us and we as professionals, we have sworn an oath to defend our clients to the best of our knowledge and ability and that is exactly what we are doing in accordance with the Constitution of this country,” he said in an interview with Joy FM.
“They are not guilty,” he added. “They’ve been brought before the court, they’ve pleaded not guilty and are being defended.”
In Freddie Blay’s estimation, the four accused persons may have a relationship with Aisha Huang because in 2017 they bought a supermarket from her.
That, in any way, does not suggest they are illegal miners and should not have fair legal representation or defence, Mr Blay stressed.
“Our firm is defending these clients; they’ve told us their story. Maybe the prosecution has been told some other story and that is why we are before the court to defend them,” he stressed.
“We are a firm of lawyers, we take our instructions from our clients based on the story they’ve told us which we have no reason to believe otherwise.”
He clapped back at critics who say his decision to defend the accused persons defeats government’s fight against ‘galamsey’.
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