PM confirms Hadeed probe expanded to foreign jurisdictions

Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

[email protected]

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says she can­not com­ment on the specifics of the on­go­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to an al­leged plot to as­sas­si­nate her and se­nior mem­bers of her Gov­ern­ment, but in­sists the probe has widened sig­nif­i­cant­ly and now in­volves mul­ti­ple for­eign agen­cies.

Her com­ments come days af­ter Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der re­voked the Pre­ven­tive De­ten­tion Or­ders (PDOs) is­sued against busi­ness­man Do­minic Hadeed and his wife Genevieve Hadeed, lead­ing to their re­lease while in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to the con­spir­a­cy to mur­der al­le­ga­tions against them con­tin­ue.

The Hadeeds were ar­rest­ed on June 24 as part of a Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to an al­leged plot to as­sas­si­nate the Prime Min­is­ter and se­nior Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials.

They were de­tained for a month un­der the Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tions un­der the on­go­ing State of Emer­gency be­fore Alexan­der re­voked the or­ders last Thurs­day, say­ing con­tin­ued de­ten­tion was no longer pro­por­tion­ate af­ter con­sid­er­ing le­gal, med­ical and con­sti­tu­tion­al is­sues, as well as a rec­om­men­da­tion from the Con­sti­tu­tion Re­view Tri­bunal. The Hadeeds were not charged with any of­fence.

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions from Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar de­clined to dis­cuss op­er­a­tional de­tails of the case, cit­ing the on­go­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

“I would not have any spe­cif­ic de­tails on the on­go­ing lo­cal and for­eign in­ves­ti­ga­tions. As Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der stat­ed in his press re­lease, the in­ves­ti­ga­tion has widened be­yond the orig­i­nal scope to new ar­eas and across mul­ti­ple ju­ris­dic­tions.”

The Prime Min­is­ter said she has been told that the in­ves­ti­ga­tion has al­so grown in both scope and com­plex­i­ty.

“I am ad­vised that mul­ti­ple for­eign in­tel­li­gence and in­ves­tiga­tive agen­cies are in­volved and that new per­sons, fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tions and busi­ness­es have been iden­ti­fied in the ex­pand­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tion. I am al­so ad­vised by lo­cal and for­eign au­thor­i­ties that these in­ves­ti­ga­tions have in­creased in com­plex­i­ty and will take some time.”

Alexan­der had pre­vi­ous­ly main­tained that de­spite re­vok­ing the PDOs, the crim­i­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tion re­mains ac­tive. He said in­ves­ti­ga­tors had in­formed him that the probe now spans mul­ti­ple ju­ris­dic­tions and re­quires co­op­er­a­tion be­tween lo­cal and in­ter­na­tion­al law en­force­ment agen­cies.

The Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter al­so said the Hadeeds will re­main un­der mon­i­tor­ing and sur­veil­lance while in­ves­ti­ga­tors con­tin­ue their work and that mea­sures have been put in place to pro­tect any­one who may still be at risk.