PUNTA CANA — “Prisoner in paradise” Joshua Riibe expressed his desire to return home and reunite with his family, in a dramatic plea to a Dominican judge on Tuesday.
The American college student, 22, made his first court appearance in Higuey, Dominican Republic, to learn whether local authorities probing Sudiksha Konanki’s disappearance can continue to hold him under de facto house arrest.
Addressing the court in an emotional but composed tone, Riibe revealed he had spoken to Sudiksha’s mother who hugged and thanked him for dragging her daughter from the ocean prior to her baffling disappearance.
“Before the family of Sudiksha left the hotel they came up and they gave me hugs and the mother even said thank you very much for helping save my daughter the first time.
“I’m just doing what I can but at this point there is nothing more I can do .. I’m ready to go home and go back to my life,” he said, with surprising composure.
Riibe said he was stripped of his passport and his phone on Saturday March 8, two days after Sudiksha, 20, vanished.
He wanted to go home the following day but has instead spent barely an hour outside of the Riu Republica resort in the past 12 days.
“Ever since the day I lost my phone and passport I have been solemnly alone” he said.
The college senior said he was shadowed by police minders who watched his every move, watched him eating his lunch and, on one occasion, “got angry” when he asked if he could go.
He said he and his father notified investigators that they had a meeting at the American embassy but they were forced to wait for hours because the prospect of them leaving the hotel ‘freaked out’ his minders.
“The main thing is that we can’t leave our room because in the morning they come and get us for interviews and we have no method of communication. They expect us to wait in the room until we are summoned,” Riibe told the judge.
“I can’t go anywhere. I really want to be able to go home, talk to my family, give them hugs and say that I miss them.”
Mike Riibe also took the stand saying he had flown to Punta Cana to ‘be with my son during this time.’
Asked when he was planning on returning to Iowa, he replied: “When my son is allowed to return to the United States.”
Riibe, the last person to see University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha alive at a five-star Punta Cana resort, issued a stunning challenge to prosecutors Monday when his attorneys filed a writ of habeas corpus.
The filing served as an audacious ultimatum to Dominican Authorities: charge me with something or let me go home.
His lawyers have argued today that it was unlawful to snatch the 22-year-old’s passport and ban him from leaving when he is merely a witness.
After nearly five hours of shouting over one another, the bickering attorneys wrapped up their arguments and huddled at the judge’s bench before a recess.
Reporters clambered on benches and screamed questions at Riibe during the rowdy court hearing
Magistrate Delgado returned to court and upheld the American’s habeas petition, ordering investigators to cut back on the constant surveillance.
However Riibe’s stay in the Dominican Republic could drag on for at least another 10 days after Delgado scheduled a further court hearing for March 28 where he will reveal full details of his ruling.
It was unclear whether Riibe was allowed to leave and return in the interim, or whether he would be given his passport back.
Santana Hernández had summed up by casting her client as a ‘victim’ as she implored the judge to restore his liberty.
She told the court the father and son were not free to come to her house that evening for dinner, adding: “That is not freedom.”
Magistrate Edwis Rijo Delgado began furiously banging his gavel to little effect
It was unclear whether Riibe was allowed to leave and return in the interim, or whether he would be given his passport back.
Upon his arrival in court earlier on Tuesday, Riibe was met with scenes of chaos as scores of reporters pushed and shoved one another to try and get a glimpse of the last person to see Sudiksha alive.
Wearing jeans and a black button down-shirt, Riibe looked around in disbelief as a phalanx of armed cops kept the crowds from getting too close to him and his dad Mike, 46.
Reporters clambered on benches and screamed questions as Magistrate Edwis Rijo Delgado began furiously banging his gavel to little effect.
Minutes later he had seen enough, bellowing out in Spanish to clear the court of cameras and video journalists to restore a semblance of order to the stifling courtroom at the Palacio de Justiçia.
Military personnel in the Dominican Republic have been seen surveying the beaches and surrounding areas amid the search for Konanki’s body
The fireworks continued as it was the turn of the opposing lawyers to shout and point angrily at one another across the packed courtroom.
Prosecutors argued that habeas corpus didn’t apply because Riibe was a witness and not a prisoner.
“He can go to the beach, he can go to the bar, he can come to court,” scoffed prosecutor Eduardo Velasquez.
“It’s false, it’s false. He walked into court without shackles.”
Micenis Beatriz Santana Hernández, Riibe’s lawyer, countered that it was absurd to claim the scruffy, unshaven vacationer was free to go when authorities had his passport.
A pair of Spring Breakers or tourists are pictured indulging in drinks and sunshine as authorities during the search operation
She said he had been collaborating for the past 11 days and given multiple interviews.
“He isn’t being treated like a normal witness. Given his high profile, he doesn’t have the ability to leave the resort with guarantees for his safety,” she insisted.
The lawyer also asked why what appeared to be a mugshot of Riibe had been leaked to the Dominican media.
Joshua and his dad Mike, wearing a stripy blue polo shirt, sat listening in stunned silence, neither able to understand a word of Spanish.
A member of their legal team did his best to translate as the raucous back-and-forth descended into furious arguing.
General views of the beachside resort in the Dominican Republic
Yards away, a Dominican police officer pressed against the courtroom door as locked-out media members repeatedly tried to barge back in.
Riibe has spent the past 12 days holed up in a quiet corner of the sprawling Riu Republica mega resort, a virtual prisoner in paradise, only leaving his room for round after round of interviews.
The senior at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, was seen on hotel CCTV with his arm draped around Sudiksha as they headed to the resort’s beach around 4am on March 6.
The cameras spotted him walking back alone at 9:55am. Sudiksha’s gal pals reported her missing at around 4pm.
On Tuesday, Sudiksha’s distraught parents said they now believe it’s likely their daughter died by drowning and that Riibe was not involved in her death.
“Both sides of the authorities have shown us how high the ocean waves were at the time of the incident, and both sides of the authorities have clarified the person of interest was not a suspect from the beginning,” her father Subbarayudu Konanki told The New York Post.
‘It is with deep sadness and a heavy heart that we are coming to terms with the fact our daughter has drowned,” he said. “This is incredibly difficult for us to process.”
They have since asked that Riibe be allowed to leave the island country and return back to home.
Earlier, DailyMail.com reported that Sudiksha‘s grieving parents have asked Dominican authorities to formally declare that she is dead.
A source with direct knowledge of the investigation told DailyMail.com on Monday that Sudiksha’s family has accepted the ‘deeply painful’ reality that she won’t be found alive, 11 days after she vanished in the early hours of March 6 while on spring break in Punta Cana.
Her disappearance sparked an intense multi-agency search, despite authorities warning early on that she’d likely tragically drowned in the rough surf.
Now, her devastated parents Subbarayudu and SreeDevi have submitted a formal written request to the National Police for a “legal declaration of death.”
“Following an extensive search, Dominican authorities have concluded that Sudiksha is believed to have drowned. Her clothes were discovered on a beach near where she was last seen,” the letter states.
“While no declaration can truly ease 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 seen with their daughter, 22-year-old Riibe, has fully cooperated with police and believe there is no evidence of foul play.
Over the course of six or seven interviews with the Ministerio Publico, Riibe recalled how the spring break sweethearts waded into the ocean after drinking and kissing before they were hit by a massive wave.
He says he dragged pre-med student Sudiksha back to shallower, knee-deep water but lost sight of her as he vomited and passed out on a sun lounger.
“After vomiting, I looked around. I didn’t see anyone. I thought she had grabbed her things and left,” he told prosecutors, according to a transcript leaked to local outlet Noticias SIN.
An 11-day search by land, water and air – the biggest missing person inquiry in the history of the Dominican Republic – failed to find any trace of her.
Speculation mounted 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 whereby they let Riibe leave only to locate Sudiksha’s corpse with signs of foul play.
But the prospect of charges receded late Monday when Sudiksha’s anguished parents Subbarayudu and SreeDevi wrote to local authorities asking them to officially declare her dead.
Crucially for Riibe, they appeared to accept that her death was a tragic accident and there was no evidence of “foul play.”
“Following an extensive search, Dominican authorities have concluded that Sudiksha is believed to have drowned.”
“Her clothes were discovered on a beach near where she was last seen,” they wrote.
“While no declaration can truly ease our grief, we trust that this step will bring some closure and enable us to honor her memory.”
The U.S. and Dominican Republic do have an extradition treaty but there would be little prospect of Riibe being dragged back to face trial.
“If he is let go and he goes to the United States, that’s it,” said Felix Portes, a high profile Domincan lawyer and managing director of the Portes Nunez & Asociados law firm.
“We have sent many people to the United States but there has never been a citizen of the United States extradited to the Dominican Republic to face criminal charges.”
“The United States is simply not in the habit of sending its citizens abroad to be judged by a foreign justice system.”
By BEN ASHFORD/Daily Mail
