A court in the Dominic Republic ruled on Tuesday that a Minnesota college student has been unlawfully detained in a hotel as he assists authorities in the search for Sudiksha Konanki, a University of Pittsburgh student who disappeared earlier this month during a spring break vacation with friends to the island nation.
Prior to the ruling, Joshua Riibe, 22, the last person to see Konanki before she went missing, had been under close police supervision and confined to the RIU Hotel & Resort for the last eight days.
The decision means Riibe, a student at St. Cloud State University, will be free to leave the hotel, but his ability to return to the U.S. remains constrained because authorities still have his passport.
His local attorneys praised the decision and said he had been a victim of “irregular treatment” during the investigation process.
Riibe told officials he and Konanki went for an early-morning swim and kissed the day she disappeared, March 6, and were caught in heavy surf.
Riibe, a former life guard, said he pulled the young woman back to shore but lost track of her after he began vomiting seawater and passed out in a beach chair.
The Minnesota student claims that during the subsequent investigation — which included a massive search involving hundreds of local police and civilian officials, aided by the FBI and international law enforcement — his travel documents were confiscated. Government officials in the Dominican Republic say they were turned over voluntarily.
The conditions prompted Riibe’s lawyers to file a preventative habeas corpus petition this week to protect the American from what they saw as a potential unlawful detention.
Albert Riibe, Joshua’s father, also testified on Tuesday, insisting he wouldn’t leave the country until his son was freed.
Dominican prosecutors argued in court that Riibe was not being held in detention but rather in conditions befitting his position as a “fact witness.” They also claimed that security for the 22-year-old was for his own protection, in case his involvement in the investigation put him at risk of reprisal.
The hearing Tuesday turned into a major spectacle, with the presiding judge ordering a scrum of cameras out of the courtroom, and defense and prosecution lawyers being chided for yelling over each other.
Further hearings are scheduled for later this month.
In court in Higüey, Riibe described being surrounded by heavy police presence at virtually all times.
“Ever since that day, after I lost my passport and phone, I have very solemnly or ever been alone,” he reportedly said, adding, “I’m just waiting to go home and go back to my life.”
He also claimed that Konanki’s parents hugged him and thanked him for attempting to save the pre-med student’s life.
On Monday, Konanki’s parents asked Dominican officials in a letter to declare their daughter dead. They also noted Riibe’s participation in the investigation and accepted the provisional explanation that Konanki drowned and was not a victim of foul play.
The missing student or her remains have not been located.
