Extradition seems likely for the main suspect in the 2005 disappearance of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway
Joran van der Sloot stated he would rather serve the remainder of his 28-year murder sentence in a Peruvian prison than be extradited to the U.S. to face charges related to the 2005 disappearance of 18-year-old Alabama resident Natalee Holloway.
Joran van der Sloot was sentenced to 28 years in a Peruvian prison for the 2010 murder of Stephany Flores, 21, in a Lima hotel room.
Joran van der Sloot admitted to murdering the young woman as well as robbing her of more than $300 in local currency, credit cards and a van. He fled to Chile after the murder and was arrested a few days later. The Peruvian judges that sentenced him ordered that he be expelled from Peru at the culmination of his sentence as well as pay over $74,000 in reparations to the family of Flores.
Joran van der Sloot is the main suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, a student that disappeared while vacationing in Aruba in 2005. At the time, Joran van der Sloot was a 17-year-old Dutch honors student living in Aruba. Joran van der Sloot was arrested in connection with the case along with Surinamese brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe but all three were released without being charged.
The story takes a turn from appalling to despicable with allegations that Joran van der Sloot attempted to extort money from Natalee Holloway’s grieving mother in exchange for information regarding her daughter’s whereabouts in March of 2010. Van der Sloot reportedly agreed to give Beth Holloway information regarding her daugther’s death and the location of the body in exchange for $250,000. The information van der Sloot provided later proved to be useless to the investigation.
In June of 2010, van der Sloot was indicted by a federal grand jury in Alabama on charges stemming from the alleged extortion. He has since made clear he plans to fight extradition to the U.S.; though, a long-standing extradition treaty between the U.S. and Peru almost guarantees that he will be extradited within the next three months, according to van der Sloot’s attorney Maximo Altez on TruTV’s InSession.
Many don’t believe Joran van der Sloot’s extradition is solely based on the extortion charges. Senior partner at the International Legal Defense Counsel Michael Griffith stated, “With all the bad guys running around – Al Qaeda and other international terrorists – do you really think the U.S. is going to go after every guy who tries to extort money from a U.S. citizen? Absolutely not. The U.S. wants to get ahold of him and charge him with Holloway’s murder.”
Van der Sloot’s chances for parole in Peru could be impacted if found guilty in the U.S., according to his lawyer. Joran van der Sloot will be sentenced in the U.S., return to Peru to finish the remainder of his murder conviction and then return to the U.S. to serve whatever sentence he receives here.
