SUDIKSHA KONANKI: The last man seen with the police treatment of missing students and seeks freedom in court

Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
CNN
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A man who is believed to be the last person to see the missing student at the University of Pittsburgh. SUDIKSHA KONANKI He is asking a court to give him his freedom, challenging the treatment of the authorities towards him from the disappearance of the 20 -year -old woman almost two weeks ago.

Joshua Steven Riibe, a 22 -year -old from Rock Rapids, Iowa, and last year student at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, presented a request for habeas corpus in a court of the Dominican Republic, claiming that their rights were violated by prosecutors, the police and the hotel where they stayed, according to judicial documents obtained by CNN.

A hearing is scheduled for 2 pm at local time on Tuesday, according to documents.

Authorities of the Dominican Republic Confiscated Riibe’s passportA source close to the investigation told CNN, and he has remained under police surveillance, although he is not considered a suspect in Konanki’s disappearance and has not been accused of irregularities.

The Attorney General of the Dominican Republic, Yeni Berenice Reynoso, interviewed Riibe during the weekend for more than six hours, according to the source. A previous statement from Riibe’s parents said his son was taken to the police station to interrogate several times.

Riibe’s parents also affirmed that he was arrested “in irregular conditions” and questioned without official translators or legal advisor until March 12. Prosecutors refused to comment when CNN asked about those accusations.

Michael Chapman, the Loudon County Sheriff, Virginia, where Konanki’s family lives, told CNN that Riibe had been “very direct with our detectives.” The Sheriff said he saw “no inconsistency” with what Riibe said.

The entire content of the Riibe’s habeas corpus application is expected to be made public at the Audience on Tuesday.

Konanki, described by his father as an “ambitious” student who planned to study medicine, arrived at Punta Cana on March 3. He traveled with five other students from the University of Pittsburgh, according to the Loudon County Sheriff’s office.

Riibe said he met Konanki at the hotel when he and his friend appeared to his group. The two groups of friends went to the bar together, where they drank until “someone suggested that we were going to the beach,” Riibe said in his interview.

In the early hours of March 6, he was seen in surveillance images drinking with five women and two men at the Riu Republic hotel. In the video, Konanki is seen wearing a white cover -up while hugging and talks to his friends. Riibe is seen several meters away, folded and stumbling with the grass outside the bar.

Then, at 4:15 am, a surveillance chamber captured the group, including Konanki, entering the beach, police said.

Just before 5 in the morning, surveillance images show five women and a man who leaves the beach, said two sources close to the investigation to CNN. Konanki was not among them.

During his fourth interview with prosecutors on Wednesday, Riibe described a heartbreaking attempt to save Konanki after the wave pushed them and tired of swimming.

“It took me for a long time. He said he was trained as lifeguard but worked in the pools, not on the beach.

“I was trying to breathe all the time.

He said he saw Konanki for the last time when she walked in water to her knees.

“The last time I saw her, I asked him if he was fine.

“After vomiting, I looked around and I didn’t see anyone.

“I felt very sick and tired.

The Sun and the bitten mosquitoes woke Riibe, he said, and went to his friend’s room to get his phone and then went to his room to sleep.

“I was sleeping in the room and my friend asked me if I had seen her; her friend told her that Konanki never returned to her room, what Riibe said she” surprised him. ”

When Konanki I didn’t go back to his roomHis friends looked for her before notifying the authorities, according to the Police source. Then, the group reported that its disappearance from the hotel staff around 4 pm on Thursday, according to the Riu hotel chain.

“After seeing her get away as she walked in the water, I never saw her again,” Riibe told Dominican News Station without.

Konanki’s Parag -style cover previously He told CNN.

Konanki’s disappearance occurs almost two months after four tourists drowned in Punta Cana, according to the Civil Defense Agency of the Dominican Republic, on the same beach where he was last seen. Strong currents swept the tourists of the Gorda Gorda beach, where the Riu Republic Hotel is located, the Civil Defense Agency said on January 18 in a Facebook publication.