LIMA, Peru (AP) — The primary suspect within the 2005 disappearance of U.S. scholar Natalee Holloway was handed over to U.S. custody and departed Peru on a flight to the USA on Thursday, roughly a month after each nations agreed on his extradition.
Joran van der Sloot is needed within the U.S. on one rely every of extortion and wire fraud, the one expenses to have ever linked the Dutch citizen to Holloway’s disappearance on the Caribbean island of Aruba.
His extradition moved ahead after a Peruvian choose on Tuesday affirmed the federal government’s determination to quickly switch custody to U.S. authorities.
Video and photographs launched by Peruvian authorities Thursday present him carrying denims and a black puffer jacket and gesturing contempt as officers adjusted his handcuffs and eliminated an Interpol-marked vest. Footage and pictures additionally present legislation enforcement officers from Peru, FBI and Interpol in addition to one well being care skilled in a convention room with van der Sloot.
Van der Sloot has been serving a 28-year sentence for the homicide of a Peruvian girl. Authorities over the weekend moved him from a maximum-security jail within the Andes to the detention facility in Lima.
It was not instantly clear when he would make his first court docket look within the U.S.
Holloway, who lived in suburban Birmingham, Alabama, was 18 when she vanished throughout a visit with classmates to Aruba. She was final seen leaving a bar with van der Sloot, who was a scholar at a global college on the island.
Van der Sloot was recognized as a suspect and detained weeks later, together with two Surinamese brothers. Holloway’s physique was by no means discovered, and no expenses had been filed within the case. A choose later declared Holloway lifeless.
The federal expenses filed in Alabama in opposition to van der Sloot stem from an accusation that he tried to extort the Holloway household in 2010, promising to make them her physique in change for tons of of hundreds of {dollars}. A grand jury indicted him that 12 months on one rely every of wire fraud and extortion.
Holloway’s mysterious disappearance sparked years of stories protection and numerous true-crime podcasts.
Van der Sloot in 2012 pleaded responsible in Peru to murdering 21-year-old Stephany Flores, a enterprise scholar from a distinguished Peruvian household. She was killed in 2010 5 years to the day after Holloway’s disappearance.
A 2001 treaty between Peru and the U.S. permits a suspect to be quickly extradited to face trial within the different nation. Van der Sloot’s lawyer, Máximo Altez, initially indicated his shopper wouldn’t problem his extradition however that modified Monday when he filed a writ of habeas corpus. A choose dominated in opposition to van der Sloot the next day.
The time that van der Sloot finally ends up spending within the U.S. “can be prolonged till the conclusion of the legal proceedings,” together with the enchantment course of ought to there be one, based on a decision printed in Peru’s federal register. The decision additionally states that U.S. authorities agreed to return van der Sloot to the custody of Peru afterward.