Hadeeds walk free as Privy Council declines rushed appeal

Five weeks of courtroom battles across four judicial levels — from a Westmoorings living room to London — ended without a single charge being laid.

• The Hadeeds were arrested at their Pine Avenue, Bayshore home on June 24; their PDOs were formally issued three days later on June 27 — meaning they spent roughly three days in custody before the legal authority for their detention was even signed.
• A three-member Review Tribunal constituted under Section 11(1) of the Constitution delivered its recommendation on July 19 that continued detention was unnecessary; the very next day, attorneys for Minister Alexander wrote to challenge that tribunal's process — contesting a finding the minister was under no legal obligation to follow.
• The Privy Council Registrar's July 23 email stated the court 'does not wish to deal with the appeal in a rush in the last few days of term'; the Hadeeds' lawyers were already drafting an application to lift the stay — based on a change in circumstances — when Alexander's revocation notice rendered it unnecessary.
• A separate Court of Appeal order issued the same morning as the revocation directed that the Hadeeds' substantive constitutional case — alleging ethnic targeting of the Syrian/Lebanese community and challenging termination of their State land leases — be heard expeditiously by a High Court judge.
• Star Sabga, the couple's relative detained on June 25 under the same assassination-plot allegations, remained at Golden Grove Women's Prison as of July 23; her hearing was scheduled for July 24, with no parallel revocation announced.
• Alexander's media release confirmed the investigation had expanded beyond its original scope across multiple jurisdictions, with both local and international law enforcement involved — suggesting the evidentiary picture, whatever its current state, was still actively developing at the moment the PDOs were lifted.

The revocation leaves the State's Privy Council appeal in procedural limbo — still technically live but potentially academic in practical terms, since the Hadeeds are no longer in custody or seeking conditional release. However, Al-Rawi has flagged that the appeal's resolution could clarify the legal standard of objective grounds required to justify a PDO, with implications for any citizen detained under emergency powers in the future.

For the wider Caribbean, the case raises pointed questions about the limits of executive preventive detention during states of emergency and the role appellate courts — including the Privy Council — play as a check on those powers. Opposition figures have warned that taxpayers may ultimately bear substantial costs in damages if any PDO detentions are found unlawful.

What to watch: • October 2026: Privy Council hearing on the State's appeal — whether it proceeds or is withdrawn, and whether it produces binding guidance on the minimum objective grounds required for PDO issuance under emergency regulations. • Star Sabga's detention hearing (July 24) and whether the minister applies the same review framework used for the Hadeeds to her continued custody. • The substantive High Court constitutional challenge filed by the Hadeeds, which alleges ethnic targeting of the Syrian/Lebanese community and seeks declarations on the legality of the SoE extension — watch for a hearing date from Justice Vigel Paul or an assigned vacation judge.

"464 Preventive Detention Orders had been published up to July 21, 2026, according to PNM deputy leader Sanjiv Boodhu, who questioned how that figure could be reconciled with approximately 232 murders recorded to that date."

— PNM deputy leader Sanjiv Boodhu, as reported by Trinidad Guardian

Many comments across social media, with a wide range of views...

• I don't think this government realises the effects of what's to come because of this. The Hadeeds aren't the typical citizens. They have the resources to seek legal action against the state for this. This government could not care less about how much this is going to cost taxpayers. All incompetent parties involved in this abuse of power must be held accountable and resign with immediate effect. Rae New on Facebook
• Have their passports been returned? Nerisha Mohammed on Facebook
• Money talks.. the law works for the rich not the poor. - Lisa Beepat Serrette on Facebook
• My question is why Star Sabga is still in prison? - Kairi Lee on Facebook
• They may need to use many Kans of Bug-Spray in that House...due to the Possibility of an Infestation. Much love. Bless! - Omidiran Ogunlade on Facebook
• The money this couple (and anyone else held under a PDO) will win should be paid by every individual who had anything to do with its enforcement- not by we, the people. - Keith Look Loy on Facebook

Viewpoint: PNM deputy leader Sanjiv Boodhu called for the immediate resignations of Alexander, Attorney General John Jeremie, Defence Minister Wayne Sturge, and Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar simultaneously, framing the episode as a democratic inflection point: 'There comes a moment in the life of every democracy when ordinary politics must give way to something greater.' Former PM Stuart Young went further, alleging the SoE was being used 'to suppress democracy and attack those whom they wish' — language that frames the detention not as a security misstep but as deliberate political persecution.

Viewpoint: Faris Al-Rawi's formulation that a revocation is 'arguably a revocation of the very grounds' — because a minister would never revoke if genuine grounds still existed — reframes the release itself as an implicit admission. That argument, if accepted in the pending High Court constitutional proceedings, could have consequences reaching well beyond the Hadeeds.

Viewpoint: Family friend Peter George Jr, speaking outside the Pine Avenue home after the couple's return, offered a quieter coda: four weeks of separation, health concerns unaddressed inside Golden Grove, and a reunion described simply as 'a sense of contentment.' He confirmed Hadeed appeared in good spirits but said specialist medical review had not yet taken place.