Global Courant 2023-05-11 08:56:53
A Dutch man suspected of the 2005 disappearance of 18-year-old American Natalee Holloway is being extradited from Peru to the US in connection with a fraud case, Peruvian officials said Wednesday.
Joran van der Sloot is serving a 28-year prison sentence in Peru for the murder of a 21-year-old Peruvian woman in 2010.
He was arrested but never convicted for the disappearance of Holloway, who disappeared in Aruba in 2005.
The case in the US involves fraud and extortion related to Holloway’s mother, Elizabeth Holloway, who goes through Beth, the government of Peru said in a statement approving Van der Sloot’s transfer to the US.
In a statement Wednesday, Beth Holloway again blamed Van der Sloot for her daughter’s death.
“It has been a very long and painful journey, but the persistence of many will pay off. Together we will finally get justice for Natalee,” she said.
Van der Sloot faced criminal charges in 2010 in Birmingham, Alabama, on two federal counts involving racketeering and wire fraud, according to court documents.
A criminal suit filed in 2010 alleges that Van der Sloot sent thousands of dollars to the Netherlands with a promise that the location of Natalee Holloway’s remains and the details of her death would be revealed.
Federal prosecutors said in 2010 that van der Sloot arranged for Beth Holloway to wire a total of $25,000 – $15,000 to his account in the Netherlands and $10,000 more to a lawyer in New York who would personally take that money to Van der Sloot in Aruba.
He told the attorney about a place in Aruba where he said Holloway’s remains were buried, but that was a lie, federal prosecutors said.
The charges in that case were commerce interference by threat or force and telephony fraud, according to court documents.
The plot involved an attempt to transfer a total of $250,000, an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit in that US fraud case.
Lawyer Maximo Altez, representing Van der Sloot, told The Associated Press that he will challenge the decision as soon as he is properly informed by the Peruvian government.
“I’m going to challenge that resolution,” Altez said. “I’m going to oppose it, as he has a right to defense.”
Holloway, who is from Alabama, was never found. She went on a high school graduation trip to Aruba and never returned. A judge later pronounced her dead.
Van der Sloot was arrested and released in that case and was never charged.
The Associated Press contributed.
