A HIGH COURT judge has given police less than 24 hours to advance their investigations of last Monday’s deadly La Romaine heist and charge the 24-year-old soldier they have in custody or release him.

Late Friday night, Justice Devindra Rampersad gave police until 2 pm on Saturday to decide on the soldier’s fate.

In his ruling, Rampersad said he was of the view he should not release the suspect at this time to give the police time to hold an identification parade.

In opposition to a writ of habeas corpus filed by the soldier’s attorneys, the police told the judge that investigators, at 2 pm, met with the Director of Public Prosecutions and the advice received, so far, was to hold an identification parade.

They said investigators were urged to have this done in the shortest possible time. However, they said the soldier’s release, at this time, “will upstage the entire investigation.”

Investigators also outlined their specific concerns in releasing the suspect. They will return to court on Monday to update the judge on their progress.

On Thursday, Rampersad granted the writ for the police to appear in court to justify their continued detention of the soldier after his attorneys complained of his “arbitrary” detention by police since Monday.

Since Wednesday there has been an exchange of correspondence between the two sides culminating in the parties being locked in a legal tussle in the court and last night’s late order by the judge.

In the application, attorneys Criston J Williams and Blaine Sobrian said the 24-year-old soldier and father of one, of Fyzabad, had been in police custody since his arrest when he went to the police station to report his vehicle, a Nissan X-Trail SUV, stolen after he was ambushed by a group of men.

Sobrian said the soldier was a robbery victim and was being detained “merely for questioning” and should be released. The soldier is assigned to a base in La Romaine and his attorneys say police had the option to release him to the custody of the Army while they complete their investigations

The police have denied the soldier’s detention was arbitrary, insisting it was reasonable and justified. They said they should be allowed the free opportunity to investigate with unnecessary haste to reduce error and ensure fairness to all.

On Thursday, the attorneys were advised their client was a suspect relative to an investigation involving multiple homicides.

Two security guards with Allied Security Ltd, who were transporting money from Pennywise Cosmetics' La Romaine, branch, were killed by five men who ambushed them and their colleagues. One of the guards, Peola Baptiste, is critically ill in hospital. Those who died were Jeffery Peters and Jerry Stuart.

Police later caught up with the armed robbers, killing four. They have been identified as Kyle and his brother Keyon "Bush" Ramdhan of Delhi Road, Greg Dodough and Deaundre "Monty" Montrose, all of Fyzabad.

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