Trinidad businessman and wife freed after detention over alleged plot

Trinidad and Tobago businessman Dominic Hadeed and his wife Genevieve Hadeed were released from prison on Thursday, having been held for nearly a month without charges over allegations of involvement in a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and other senior government officials.

The case had drawn national attention and raised concerns among opposition figures and civil rights advocates regarding the use of powers enacted under a state of emergency declared in March to combat organized crime.

Dominic Hadeed, owner of the bottled-water company Blue Waters, and his wife have denied the allegations, stating in court documents that their detention was politically motivated. Their release came after Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander accepted a tribunal's recommendation that continuing their detention was not in the public interest.

Hadeed, a prominent businessman, was accused of conspiring to assassinate the prime minister, attorney general, and other government members. The couple, arrested in June under emergency powers, argued their detention was retaliatory, as Hadeed is a member of the nation's Syrian-Lebanese community, perceived to support the opposition.

The legal battle extended to the British Privy Council, Trinidad and Tobago's highest appellate court. The Court of Appeal had previously ruled the couple should be released, but the government sought to challenge this before the Privy Council. The latter declined to hear the government's appeal on an urgent basis, a decision that could have prolonged the couple's detention.