1 year ago
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Joran van der Sloot, indicted in 2010 on extortion and wire-fraud charges in connection with the disappearance in Aruba of Mountain Brook teen Natalee Holloway, will be extradited to Alabama to face the federal charges in Birmingham.
Peru today issued an executive order allowing the temporary extradition of van der Sloot to the United States.
The Northern District of Alabama U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the extradition.
Once he arrives in the U.S., Van der Sloot will be arraigned in federal court in Birmingham.
“The Government of Peru is committed to justice, the rule of law, and international legal cooperation. At a time when there is increasingly greater cross-border transit of people, our institutions are keeping up to ensure that criminals are brought to justice,” a statement from Peru read.
“We will continue to collaborate on legal issues with allies such as the United States, and many others with which we have extradition treaties,” said Edgar Alfredo Rebaza, Director of the Office of International Judicial Cooperation and Extraditions of the National Prosecutor’s Office.
Van der Sloot, a Dutch national from Aruba, is currently serving a 28-year prison sentence in Peru for the 2010 murder of Lima college student Stephany Flores.
Flores was killed five years to the day Natalee disappeared.
Van der Sloot was arrested in the Holloway disappearance but never charged with her death.
The 18-year-old visited Aruba on a high school graduation trip in May 2005, along with 130-plus of her graduated classmates from Mountain Brook High School.
For several days, the teens - of legal drinking age in Aruba - sunned and snorkeled during the day, and at night donned their sundresses for dinner and partying at Carlos’ N Charlie’s, which at the time was located in downtown Oranjestad, a decent cab ride from the high-rise district.
The group often ended up at Excelsior Casino, which was connected to the Holiday Inn where the Mountain Brook group stayed.
On their last night, Natalee and her friends met van der Sloot, who lived with his family in the nearby Montana neighborhood and attended the Aruba International School.
She was last seen about 1 a.m. getting into a gray Honda with van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers as they left Carlo ‘N Charlie’s.
On their last night, Natalee and her friends met van der Sloot, who lived with his family in the nearby Montana neighborhood and attended the Aruba International School.
She was last seen about 1 a.m. getting into a gray Honda with van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers as they left Carlo ‘N Charlie’s.
Natalee was scheduled to fly home on May 30 but failed to show up when the group met in the lobby to leave for their flight.
Natalie’s family flew to Aruba immediately.
They, along two Aruban policemen, went to the van der Sloot home looking for Holloway.
Van der Sloot initially denied knowing Natalee Holloway, but later said they drove to the California Lighthouse area of Arashi Beach because Natalee wanted to see sharks, before dropping her off at her hotel around 2 a.m.
Van der Sloot said Natalee fell down as she got out of the car but refused his help. He said she was then approached by a man in a black shirt similar to those worn by security guards as the young men drove away.
The search continued for years, but to no avail.
In the Alabama charges, the U.S. Attorney’s office and FBI said that on May 15, 2010, van der Sloot extorted $15,000 as a partial payment, wired from Birmingham to the Netherlands.
The total amount he was to be paid was $250,000. The information that van der Sloot has provided to that unnamed individual was false, federal authorities said.
Federal authorities in Alabama contend van der Sloot exploited the fear of Holloway’s mother, Beth, that she would never find her daughter’s body or know what happened to her unless she paid him $250,000.
Van der Sloot faces one count of wire fraud and one count of extortion in connection with a FBI investigation that started in April 2010 in Birmingham.
Beth Holloway on Wednesday night released this statement:
“In May 2005 my 18-year-old daughter Natalee Holloway left Birmingham for Aruba to attend her high school graduation trip and was never seen again. She was abducted and murdered there. Now almost exactly eighteen years later, her perpetrator, Joran van der Sloot, has been extradited to Birmingham to answer for his crimes.
He has been in prison in Peru for murdering another young girl there named Stephany Flores in 2010. While I will have much more to say later about what is happening, for now I want to express my sincere gratitude to President Dina Boluarte, the President of Peru, the warm people of Peru, the family of Stephany Flores, the FBI in Miami, Florida and in Birmingham, Alabama, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Birmingham, the U.S. Embassy in Peru and the Peruvian Embassy in the U.S., my longtime attorney John Q. Kelly who has worked tirelessly on this case, and George Seymore and Marc Wachtenheim of Patriot Strategies.
Most importantly, I especially want to thank Greta Van Susteren who has become a very close friend and who has worked diligently with me for 18 years investigating and working to get justice, never giving up.
I was blessed to have had Natalee in my life for 18 years, and as of this month, I have been without her for exactly 18 years.
She would be 36 years old now. It has been a very long and painful journey, but the persistence of many is going to pay off. Together, we are finally getting justice for Natalee.”
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