By Staff Writer
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Sept 15, CMC -The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) and the Office of the Attorney General have withdrawn their legal battle against 69-year-old Star Sabga, who had been placed under house arrest after she spent several weeks within the prison system under a Preventive Detention Order (PDO) during the state of emergency (SoE) that is due to expire on Wednesday.
Lawyers representing the TTPS and the Attorney General’s Office outlined their position in an email on Monday, indicating that they will no longer be proceeding with the substantive matter against Sabga, less than 72 hours after Appellate Judge Carla Brown-Antoine granted the State time to consider the future of the appeal, noting that it had effectively become academic following Sabga’s release
Earlier, Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander had revoked the PDO against Sabga, who, along with her niece Genevieve and her businessman husband, Dominic Hadeed, the managing director of Blue Waters Products Limited, were detained in connection with an alleged plot to murder government officials, including the Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
All three were placed under PDOs at the Golden Grove Prison in Arouca, along the east-west corridor, on June 27. The Hadeeds were released on July 23 after Alexander revoked their PDOs. Sabga remained under house arrest from July 27 until her release on Thursday last week.
The Hadeeds’ initial bid for interim release was rejected by Justice Frank Seepersad but later upheld by a panel of the Court of Appeal, which questioned the justification advanced by Alexander for their continued detention under the PDOs.
However, another Court of Appeal panel, led by Chief Justice Ronnie Boodoosingh, stayed that ruling pending the outcome of the State’s final appeal before the United Kingdom-based Privy Council. The SoE Review Tribunal subsequently recommended the trio’s release.
The PDOs against the Hadeeds were eventually withdrawn after the Privy Council indicated that it would not hear the State’s appeal until October.
In late July, High Court Judge Vigel Paul ordered that Sabga be placed under the same house arrest conditions previously imposed by the initial Court of Appeal panel in relation to the Hadeeds. The TTPS and the Attorney General’s Office subsequently challenged that decision.
Sabga and the Hadeeds are now pursuing a substantive constitutional claim challenging their detention. They allege that they have been targeted by the Government because of their ethnicity and because of separate legal proceedings brought by the Hadeeds over attempts to terminate their leases for State-owned land.
They contend that their arrests followed what they describe as veiled threats made by Attorney General John Jeremie during a parliamentary debate on extending the SoE.
Meanwhile, at least 25 people detained under PDO have signaled their intention to seek legal action against the state, according to attorney CJ Williams.
Williams told the Trinidad Guardian newspaper that his law chambers is currently representing at least 25 former detainees and that he expects that number to rise as more individuals seek advice on their legal options.
“I would say approximately 25 minimum. However, from our clients inside, several persons wish to come and ask what’s next,” he told the newspaper, adding that each case would be assessed on its individual merits.
“What I can say is that some persons have a clear-cut case where they ought to be entitled to some sort of compensation,” Williams said, adding that a key consideration will be how Alexander exercised his discretion in authorising each PDO.
“It all boils down to how a minister exercised his discretion on a case-by-case basis. It’s not like one shoe could fit all,” Williams said.
Under the Emergency Powers Regulations, 2026, which govern the issuance of PDOs, the government included a provision shielding the state from the type of civil liability which followed the SoE in 2011.
“No person shall be liable to any suit or action in respect of any act done under lawful direction and authority pursuant to the provisions of these Regulations,” according to the
Regulations, even though they provide for the possibility of compensation from public funds, at the discretion of the President, where a person is found to have suffered loss or damage as a result of the exercise of certain emergency powers
CMC/ah/ir/2026