A High Court judge is expected to rule next week whether 70 year-old Star Sabga will be granted an interim release after lawyers representing the state was granted additional time to respond to her application.
Sabga is believed to be a relative of Genevieve Hadeed, who along with her businessman husband, Dominic, were released after the Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander revoked a preventative detention order (PDO) that kept them behind bars for a month.
The Hadeeds had been detained amid allegations that they were conspiring to assassinate Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Attorney General John Jeremie and other members of her government.
Alexander had revoked the PDOs after he said he had reviewed the legal, medical and constitutional issues surrounding the couple’s detention. In a release, he said their continued detention was no longer proportionate while the police investigation continued.
Sabga’s attorneys are asking Justice Paul to grant her house arrest under the same conditions ordered by a panel of the Court of Appeal for the Hadeeds last week
On Friday, lawyers for Sabga, who has also not been charged with any offence, told Justice Vigel Paul that ‘this is a fundamental rights case which the Court of Appeal has suggested should be dealt with extreme urgency,
‘We consider that there has been significant and egregious Executive overreach in this case,’ attorney Rishi Dass, SC, said as he challenged the position of the state’s attorney, Gerald Ramdeen on the matter.
Ramdeen, who is representing Alexander, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) and the Office of the Attorney General, said he needed additional time to respond to the lengthy affidavit filed in support of the application and that he was not seeking to prolong Sabga’s detention.
‘Nobody came to this court worrying about Star Sabga when the Hadeeds were locked up,’ Ramdeen said, adding ‘we can’t allow expedition to trump the fundamental rules of fairness’.
Justice Paul eventually agreed to give the State the weekend to respond to the affidavits. He will then hear submissions on the issue on Monday afternoon.