Police have 24 hours in which to charge a police officer suspected of being involved in the kidnapping of Natalie Pollonais.
Delivering an oral ruling in a habeas corpus writ filed by the officer's lawyer Shiva Boodoo at the Hall of Justice in Port-of-Spain this afternoon, High Court judge Magaret Mohammed ordered that he be immediately released if investigators cannot charge him by midday tommorrow.
In the application, Boodoo challenged the officer's lengthy detention without being charged.
The officer was arrested at the La Romaine Police Post shortly after Pollonais was rescued by police, last Monday.
Pollonais, 49, of Palmiste, is the wife of Jason Pollonais, a director of the South Oropouche-based Inland and Offshore Contractors Ltd (IOCL)
On September 6, she disappeared after visiting the Central Athletic Club gym and some stores at C3 Centre.
CCTV footage showed she left in her BMW 5308 hybrid sedan around 11.30 am. Her husband reported her missing when she did not return home.
Later that night, San Fernando CID and Southern Division Task Force found her car abandoned in the parking lot of an apartment building at Cypress Hills, Union Hall.
Also, on that night, her kidnappers contacted her family and demanded a US$300,000 ransom for her return.
The kidnappers allowed her to speak to her husband as proof she was alive. However, they hung up when the issue of the currency of the ransom arose. A source said that the family had gathered the money and was prepared to pay.
Last Monday, the Organised Crime and Intelligence Unit (OCIU) and Anti-Kidnapping Unit (AKU) conducted surveillance on a white Nissan AD Wagon that went to a hotel in Caroni and left minutes later.
The wagon was intercepted several minutes later and Pollonais was rescued.
On Tuesday, Special Reserve Police (SRP) Shawndelle Euin and welder Gregory James appeared in court charged over Pollonais' kidnapping. Police also have another civilian in custody over the incident.
Investigations are continuing.