Crim­i­nal Bar As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Is­rael Khan, SC, says the de­ci­sion to re­lease Do­minic and Genevieve Hadeed from prison and place them un­der house ar­rest has on­ly un­der­scored the so­cio-eco­nom­ic in­equal­i­ties that ex­ist in this coun­try.

The Hadeeds were ar­rest­ed on June 24 and spent 22 days in cus­tody be­fore be­ing or­dered re­leased from prison yes­ter­day and placed un­der house ar­rest by the Ap­peal Court. How­ev­er, the State last night se­cured a stay of that de­ci­sion from an­oth­er Ap­peal Court pan­el of judges, pend­ing a chal­lenge of the ear­li­er de­ci­sion to the Privy Coun­cil.

Re­spond­ing short­ly af­ter the ini­tial vir­tu­al de­ci­sion was hand­ed down by Jus­tices of Ap­peal Pe­ter Ra­jku­mar, Mi­ra Dean-Ar­mor­er and Joan Charles in the Port-of-Spain High Court yes­ter­day, Khan said, “This could sig­nal to the coun­try that there’s one law for the im­pov­er­ished and an­oth­er law for the rich, and I hope not.”