Dominic Hadeed, a high-profile businessman best known as the owner of bottled-water company Blue Waters, and his wife Genevieve were released from prison on Thursday after being held for nearly a month without formal charges relating to an alleged plot to assassinate Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and other senior officials.
Their detention, which took place under emergency powers, attracted national attention and prompted criticism from opposition politicians and civil rights groups concerned about how the state of emergency - declared in March to combat organized crime - has been applied.
In court filings, the Hadeeds denied the accusations and said their detention was politically motivated. The couple had been arrested at their home in June under the emergency regulations. Authorities accused Dominic Hadeed of conspiring to kill the prime minister, the attorney general and additional members of the government.
The Hadeeds challenged their detention through the courts. A tribunal recommended that it was not in the public interest to continue holding them, a recommendation that Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander accepted, leading to their release.
The legal fight intensified as it moved through the appellate system. The Court of Appeal ruled last week that the couple should be freed, but the government sought to continue the detention by appealing to the British Privy Council, Trinidad and Tobago's highest appellate court. The Trinidad Appeal court had agreed that they should remain in custody until the Privy Council resolved the matter.
On Thursday the Privy Council declined to hear the government’s appeal on an urgent basis. Had the Privy Council agreed to an urgent hearing, the couple might have remained in prison through the court’s summer recess or until the state of emergency ended.
The Hadeeds have argued that their detention targeted members of an ethnic minority perceived to support the opposition. Dominic Hadeed is a member of Trinidad and Tobago’s Syrian-Lebanese community. He has also said that his public criticism of the state of emergency contributed to his detention.
The six-month state of emergency, imposed in March as part of the government’s plan to tackle organized crime, provides the legal framework under which the arrests took place. Hadeed’s legal team did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Context and implications
The case has become a focal point for debate about the scope and use of emergency powers, the protection of civil liberties during security operations, and the legal pathways available to challenge detentions under such measures.