563 SoE detainees to be freed in batches over six days

Se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cials say they were giv­en in­struc­tions to re­lease a to­tal of 563 State of Emer­gency (SoE) de­tainees from prison fa­cil­i­ties in east Trinidad over a phased six-day pe­ri­od, with the cur­rent SoE due to ex­pire on Sep­tem­ber 17.

How­ev­er, as prison and po­lice of­fi­cers pre­pare for the re­lease process, rel­a­tives wait­ing out­side the cor­rec­tion­al fa­cil­i­ties say the lengthy de­lays are test­ing their pa­tience.

Yes­ter­day, a po­lice source con­firmed that the phased re­lease sys­tem was im­ple­ment­ed to pre­vent se­cu­ri­ty re­sources from be­ing over­whelmed while en­sur­ing de­tainees are re­leased safe­ly and ef­fi­cient­ly.