'Prisoner in Paradise' Joshua Riibe appeared today in a Dominican Republic Court to learn whether agents who investigated the disappearance of Sudiksha Konanki can continue to keep him under de facto house arrest.
The American student, 22, received a meeting with scenes of almost indisputable chaos pushed dozens of reporters and pushed each other to try to get a glimpse of the last person to see Sudiksha alive.
Riibe wore jeans and a black down shirt, looked around unbelieving while a falanx of armed agents stopped the crowd too close to him and his father Mike, 46.
Reporters clambered on banks and shouted questions when magistrate Edwis Rijo Delgado furiously started to hit his hammer with little effect.
Minutes later he had seen enough, roaring in Spanish to free up the court of cameras and video journalists to restore an appearance of order to the stifling courtroom in the Palacio de Justiçia.
Riibe, the last person who saw the University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha in a five-star Punta Cana Resort alive, gave a stunning challenge for prosecutors on Monday when his lawyers submitted a writer of Habeas Corpus.
The application served as a daring ultimatum for Dominican authorities: accusing me something or let me go home.
His lawyers are expected to claim today that it was illegal to grab the passport of the 22-year-old and to forbid him when he is only a witness.
Joshua Riibe appeared on Tuesday in a Dominican Republic court to learn whether local authorities who investigated the disappearance of Sudiksha Konanki can keep him in the country
The American student, 22, was met with scenes of almost undoubtedly chaos pushed dozens of reporters and pushed each other to try to get a glimpse of the last person to see Sudiksha alive alive
Sudiksha Konanki, 20, disappeared from a beach in the Riu Republica Hotel in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic on 6 March. Colleague -lead Joshua Riibe was taken into account intensively after it was revealed that he was the last to see her alive
A judge in Higuey, a bustling metropolis one hour west of Punta Cana, will now determine whether the former high school wrestler is finally free to fly home to Rock Rapids, Iowa.
For the past 12 days, Riibe has spent in a quiet corner of the vast Riu Republica Mega Resort, a virtual prisoner in paradise, who only leaves his room for round after interviews.
The senior at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, was seen at Hotel CCTV with his arm draped around Sudiksha as they went to the beach of the Resort on 6 March.
The cameras saw him walk back alone at 9.55 am. Sudiksha's Galvrienden reported that she was missing at around 4 p.m.
On Tuesday, her desperate parents said they now believe that it is likely that their daughter died by drowning and that Riibe was not involved in her death.
“Both parties of the authorities showed us how high the ocean waves were at the time of the incident, and both sides of the authorities made it clear that the person was of interest was not a suspect from the start,” her father told Subbarayudu Konanki to the New York Post.
“It is with deep sadness and a heavy heart that we come to terms with the fact that our daughter has drowned,” he said. “This is incredibly difficult for us to process.”
Since then they have asked that Riibe can leave the Eilterland and return home.
On Monday, Sudiksha's destroyed parents Sreedevi and Subbarayudu – who traveled to DR from Virginia – submitted a formally written request to the National Police for a 'legal declaration of death'
The couple believes that their daughter was probably drowned and wants to continue honoring her memory, even though her body has not been found
The desperate parents have submitted a formally written request to the National Police for a 'legal declaration of death'
Previously, DailyMail.com reported that the grieving parents of Sudiksha asked the Dominican authorities to formally declare that she is dead.
A source with direct knowledge of the study told DailyMail.com on Monday that the Sudiksha family accepted the 'deeply painful' reality that she will not be found alive, 11 days after she disappeared during the early hours of 6 March during the spring break in Punta Cana.
Her disappearance led to an intense search with multiple authorities, despite the authorities who warned at an early age that she would probably have drowned tragically into the raw surf.
Now, her Destroyed parents Subbarayudu and Sreedevi have submitted a formally written request to the National Police for a 'legal declaration of death'.
'After an extensive search, the Dominican authorities concluded that Sudiksha is supposed to drown. Her clothes were discovered on a beach near where she was last seen, “says the letter.
“Although no explanation can really alleviate our grief, we trust that this step will bring some closure and enable us to honor her memory.”
They also wrote that the young person last saw with their daughter, the 22-year-old Joshua Riibe, fully cooperated with the police and believe that there is no evidence of cheating.
In the course of six or seven interviews with the Ministerio Publico, Riibe remembered how the Spring Break -after drinking and kissing wads in the ocean before they were hit by a huge wave.
Joshua Riibe is questioned by authorities in Punta Cana. The 22-year-old seized his passport, but still has to be called a suspect
The security video images showed Riibe and Sudiksha together the night they disappeared
He says that he dragged pre-media Sudiksha back to shallower, knee-deep water, but lost sight of her when he surrendered and fainted on a lounger.
“After vomiting I looked around. I haven't seen anyone. I thought she had caught her things and had left, “he said prosecutors, according to a transcript leaked to local outlet noticias a shame.
An 11 -day search on land, water and air – the biggest study of missing person in the history of the Dominican Republic – could not find any trace of her.
Speculation raised Monday that Yeni Berenice Reynoso, the glamorous and highly regarded attorney general of the Dominican Republic, could hit Riibe with charges to keep him in the country.
Dominican officials feared a worst-case scenario in which they only let Riibe leave to find Sudiksha's corpse with signs of cheat.
But the prospect of charges went back on Monday when Sudiksha's Angue Parents wrote Subbarayudu and Sreedevi to local authorities and asked them to officially explain her.
Crucial for Riibe they seemed to accept that her death was a tragic accident and there was no evidence of 'false play'.
'After an extensive search, the Dominican authorities concluded that Sudiksha is supposed to drown. Her clothes were discovered on a beach near where she was last seen, “they wrote.
University of Pittsburgh Pre-Med Student Sudiksha Konanki disappeared on March 6 from the Riu Republica Hotel in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
“Although no explanation can really alleviate our grief, we trust that this step will bring some closure and enable us to honor her memory.”
The US and the Dominican Republic do have an extradition treaty, but there would be little prospect that Riibe will be dragged back to the face.
“If he is released and he goes to the United States, it is,” said Felix Portes, a controversial Domincan lawyer and director of the law firm of Portes Nunez & Asociados.
'We have sent many people to the United States, but a citizen from the United States has never been extradited to the Dominican Republic to set criminal prosecution.
“The United States simply does not have the habit of sending its citizens abroad to be assessed by a foreign legal system.”
