A significant legal dispute over the prolonged detention of a Trinidadian businessman and his spouse took a new turn on Friday, as High Court Justice Frank Seepersad rejected a habeas corpus writ application filed by the couple’s senior counsel, while ordering the top of the national police force to confirm the legal basis for their ongoing custody.
Senior Counsel Faris Al-Rawi, representing businessman Dominic Hadeed and his wife Genevieve Hadeed, lodged the habeas corpus application via sworn affidavit early Friday, seeking the couple’s immediate release from police detention. The pair were taken into custody by officers from the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) during a pre-dawn raid at their Bayshore, Westmoorings residence on Wednesday, June 24, 2026.
Al-Rawi’s affidavit laid out a granular account of the raid and the couple’s subsequent treatment in custody. According to the document, at approximately 6:15 a.m. last Wednesday, plainclothes officer Corporal Eldon Calliste forced entry into the couple’s bedroom after repeatedly calling for Dominic Hadeed, turning him away when he requested time to dress. After identifying himself with a badge, Calliste oversaw a full search of the entire residence, during which officers seized all electronic devices on the property—including devices owned by the couple’s children. Genevieve Hadeed told Al-Rawi she encountered multiple officers carrying machine guns when she entered the couple’s living room.
Following the search, the pair were transported separately to TTPS’ Special Branch headquarters at Agra Court, St James, where Dominic Hadeed’s personally licensed firearm was recorded. They were then moved to a property in Blue Waters, Orange Grove, for another hour-long search that resulted in the seizure of additional electronics, before Dominic Hadeed was taken to his business premises at Gulf City Mall to retrieve legally licensed firearms and ammunition held at the location. The couple were ultimately placed in separate holding cells at Carenage Police Station and Woodbrook Police Station, respectively.
In his affidavit, Al-Rawi detailed alarming deficiencies in the conditions of the couple’s detention, which he personally inspected after the arrest. Describing Genevieve Hadeed’s holding cell at Woodbrook Police Station, Al-Rawi recorded that the roughly 48-square-foot cell had a dirty floor, no bedding or furniture, and a hole in the ground functioning as a toilet with no running water. The cell lacked ventilation, was dimly lit by wire-shielded fluorescent lights, reeked of human waste, and had visible cockroaches crawling across the floor. A second detained woman was also held in the cramped space, crouching in a fetal position on the floor. Al-Rawi added that Genevieve Hadeed had been visibly distressed and cried throughout her detention, and that a scheduled attorney-client consultation was held in the station canteen with a uniformed officer remaining within hearing distance at all times, the door propped open with a paint bucket to prevent privacy.
Al-Rawi also raised urgent medical concerns over Dominic Hadeed’s detention conditions at Carenage Police Station. The businessman lives with sleep apnea, a chronic condition that requires nightly use of a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine, and also has an orthopedic leg injury that requires a stabilizing brace. According to the affidavit, the holding cell where Hadeed was placed lacked electrical access to power his CPAP machine, and officers required him to remove his shoe laces, which compromised the fit of his orthopedic brace. He was forced to sleep on a bare concrete slab without bedding, and his sleep apnea was severely aggravated, leaving him unable to sleep for days.
The affidavit also exposed conflicting information provided by police about the legal authority for the Hadeeds’ detention. Al-Rawi told the court that when he asked Assistant Superintendent WPC Rawlins on June 25 whether the pair were detained under a regular arrest warrant, Preventive Detention Order, or the 2026 Emergency Powers Regulations, he was explicitly told the detention was not under a PDO or emergency regulations. Hours later, however, the Hadeeds were each presented with detention orders extending their custody by seven days explicitly issued under the 2026 Emergency Powers Regulations—marking the first time the couple had received any notification of the legal basis for their arrest.
By Friday afternoon, the Hadeeds had been held for approximately 74 hours without being formally charged or interviewed under police caution. Al-Rawi also told the court that Genevieve Hadeed’s 78-year-old maternal aunt, Star Sabga, was arrested without explanation at her Regents Towers, Westmoorings residence on June 25, and held in custody for more than a day before her legal team was able to meet with her. As of Friday, police confirmed they were still waiting for a forensic report from the TTPS Cyber Crime Unit before scheduling interviews with the Hadeeds, leaving the couple’s legal team to argue that a prima facie case of unlawful detention had already been established.
After hearing the application on Friday, Justice Seepersad formally dismissed the immediate habeas corpus writ request, but issued a direct order to TTPS Commissioner Allister Guevarro to issue formal clarification confirming whether the Hadeeds are indeed being held under a Preventive Detention Order. The entire matter has been scheduled for a virtual hearing before the court at 9 a.m. Saturday to revisit the question of the detention’s legality following police’s clarification.