Charles Bissue, the former Secretary of the disbanded Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), has been granted bail by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).
The OSP detained Mr. Bissue after he turned himself in on June 21st, a Wednesday.
Bissue was detained at 11:45 GMT, according to a statement from the OSP, and questioned by staff members of the Office. After that, he was granted bail and released.
After Charles Bissue ignored an invitation from the Special Prosecutor to appear and respond to inquiries regarding the ongoing investigation into alleged corruption within the now-defunct IMCIM, the Office of the Special Prosecutor issued a wanted declaration for him last week.
Charles Bissue, who is already on trial for alleged crimes related to corruption that were allegedly connected to him in the Anas Aremeyaw Anas galamsey fraud documentary, is also under investigation for alleged crimes related to corruption that were allegedly connected to some expenditures of the previous Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining.
Mr. Bissue recently attempted to stop the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) from bringing charges against him by filing a writ at the High Court in Accra. The Special Prosecutor’s ongoing investigation into allegations of corruption involving Prof. Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, the Chairman of the IMCIM, prompted this legal action.
The Special Prosecutor has also been ordered by the Court to stop requesting additional arrest warrants and publishing notices claiming the applicant is wanted while the substantive matter is still being decided.
When Charles Bissue was discovered accepting bribes to facilitate illegal mining, also known as galamsey, he was named in an exposé by investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas and his Tiger Eye Pi team.
In the video, Bissue is seen acting as a facilitator for a company trying to get around established procedures in order to get approval for its mining operations.
He is heard in the video giving orders to his subordinates to “fast track” the processing of the company’s documents. He is seen accepting wads of cash to facilitate the quick “clearance” of a mining company so that it can start mining as soon as possible.
