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 vacation 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, which he claims was confiscated and government officials say was turned over voluntarily.
Further hearings are scheduled for later this month.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated with new information.
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