After Hadeeds release PNM calls for PDO probe

Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

[email protected]

The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) is call­ing for an in­de­pen­dent in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the Gov­ern­ment’s use of Pre­ven­tive De­ten­tion Or­ders (PDOs) dur­ing the 2026 State of Emer­gency, fol­low­ing the re­vo­ca­tion of the de­ten­tion or­ders against Do­minic and Genevieve Hadeed.

The Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty an­nounced on Wednes­day that it had re­voked the PDOs af­ter what it de­scribed as “a com­pre­hen­sive re­view of the le­gal, med­ical and pub­lic in­ter­est is­sues” sur­round­ing the case, in­clud­ing rec­om­men­da­tions from the Con­sti­tu­tion­al Re­view Tri­bunal and on­go­ing as­sess­ments un­der the 2026 Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tions.

De­spite lift­ing the de­ten­tion or­ders, the Min­istry stressed that the crim­i­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the al­leged plot to as­sas­si­nate Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and oth­er se­nior Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials re­mains ac­tive. It said the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice, to­geth­er with lo­cal and in­ter­na­tion­al law en­force­ment agen­cies, con­tin­ues to in­ves­ti­gate the mat­ter, while mea­sures re­main in place to pro­tect pub­lic safe­ty.

Re­act­ing to the de­vel­op­ment, PNM Chair­man and for­mer Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les said the Gov­ern­ment’s de­ci­sion sup­ports the Op­po­si­tion’s long held con­cerns about the use of emer­gency pow­ers.

“This jus­ti­fies the PNM’s per­sis­tent calls, es­pe­cial­ly in re­cent times, for a full scale in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the State’s use of PDOs un­der this SoE,” Gon­za­les said.

Speak­ing with CNC3 News, he added, “It was al­ways used to in­car­cer­ate cit­i­zens il­le­gal­ly with­out proof that they were or are in­volved in crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties.”

Ac­cord­ing to Gon­za­les, the re­vo­ca­tion of the de­ten­tion or­ders rais­es fur­ther ques­tions about the Gov­ern­ment’s ac­tions dur­ing the State of Emer­gency.

“This re­vo­ca­tion demon­strates that there is more to un­cov­er about the State’s use of PDOs,” he said.

The for­mer Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter al­so called for the re­moval of two se­nior Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials.

“The ap­point­ments of the Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty and the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al should be im­me­di­ate­ly re­voked and there should be a full and in­de­pen­dent in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to this trav­es­ty, not on­ly con­cern­ing the Hadeeds, but the en­tire process and the hun­dreds of cit­i­zens whose lives have been de­stroyed,” Gon­za­les stat­ed.

He fur­ther claimed the Gov­ern­ment had failed to sub­stan­ti­ate al­le­ga­tions sur­round­ing an al­leged as­sas­si­na­tion plot tar­get­ing the Prime Min­is­ter and oth­er se­nior of­fi­cials.

“It is clear that they have no ev­i­dence to sup­port the al­le­ga­tions of threats on the lives of the Prime Min­is­ter and oth­er Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ters,” Gon­za­les said.

He con­tin­ued, “It was all part of their con­tin­ued lies ever since this SoE was called from the in­cep­tion. It was all based on lies and fab­ri­ca­tions meant to fool the na­tion in or­der to achieve their dirty po­lit­i­cal work.”

The Gov­ern­ment has con­sis­tent­ly de­fend­ed the State of Emer­gency and the use of Pre­ven­tive De­ten­tion Or­ders as nec­es­sary mea­sures to ad­dress se­ri­ous na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty threats. Al­though the de­ten­tion or­ders against the Hadeeds have been re­voked, the Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty says the in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the al­leged as­sas­si­na­tion plot re­mains on­go­ing.