N.Y. Police seek answers on deaths of Saudi sisters found in River: NPR

The New York City police are still wondering what happened a week after two bodies facing each other, taped together, were found in the waters of the Hudson River.

Police identified the bodies as Saudi sisters Rotana Farea, 22, and Tala Farea, 16, who had emigrated with their family to Fairfax, Virginia, a few years ago.

"We want to get justice for these two girls and find out what happened," Detective Chief of the New York Police Department Dermot Shea said this week.

The Fareas, a family of six, moved to the United States in search of a better education for their sisters and their two brothers aged 18 and 11, reports the Arab News newspaper.

Initially, the police had asked for help public to identify bodies, releasing black and white sketches. Now the police know their names and study the significance of an apparently disturbing trail left by the sisters.

The New York Times reports that the sisters have disappeared since the beginning of last year, when their mother announced their disappearance. Police located the sisters, who were then placed in a shelter after asking to be protected.

Then, in August, their mother again reported the disappearance of Tala Farea. But the Arab news reports that the search was halted when it was discovered that she was living with her older sister, who was studying computer and information technology in New York.

The police had considered the theory that the sisters had committed suicide, binding themselves before jumping off a bridge. But the Time According to the investigators, the bodies would not show the expected signs of trauma resulting from such a fall.

Authorities did not rule out the murder.

"There are still gaps that we would like to fill and get a very clear picture of what has happened in the last two months," Shea said Wednesday.

New York police sent a detective to Virginia to learn more about the lives of the sisters in the city.

"These interviews really reveal, in a way, a piece of the backstage puzzle," Shea said Wednesday. "There is still work to be done."

Citing the police, the Associated Press reports that the day before the bodies of the sisters were found in the river, their mother received a call from the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, ordering to the family to leave the United States, his daughters having asked for political asylum. .

But an unnamed embassy official told Arab News that no such appeal had been launched.

"No communication with the mother has nothing to do with an alleged asylum claim," said the official.

The Saudi consulate published a statement, pointing out that, although much remains unknown, he "appointed a lawyer to follow the case closely".

The mysterious deaths follow the highly publicized death of another Saudi citizen, which sparked an international outcry. On October 2, Jamal Khashoggi, a dissident journalist based in U-S, was killed after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

The Turkish prosecutor said that a Saudi strike team had committed premeditated murder, strangling Khashoggi and dismembering his body shortly after entering the building. The Saudi authorities initially denied knowing what had happened, and then, as a result of a violent reaction, later claimed that Khashoggi had died as a result of an altercation.

His remains have not been found.