The extradition is the latest twist in the mystery surrounding
the fate of Natalee Holloway, an 18-year-old from suburban
Birmingham who vanished during a high school graduation trip to
the Caribbean island of Aruba in May 2005.
The disappearance prompted an exhaustive investigation and
intense media attention.
"It will be by air and it will possibly take place on Thursday,"
Carlos Lopez, head of the Interpol Lima office, told Reuters in
an interview, referring to the extradition of Joran Van der
Sloot, who is currently in a maximum security prison in Lima.
A decade ago Van der Sloot, a Dutch citizen, was sentenced to 28
years in prison in Peru after he confessed to strangling,
beating and suffocating a 21-year-old Peruvian business student.
Van der Sloot's lawyer, Maximo Altez, said he was filing an
appeal on Monday seeking to stop the extradition, arguing that
authorities have not respected due process.
Altez said Van der Sloot had accepted the extradition "in his
desperation to get out of prison," adding there was a "media
lynching" against him in the United States.
The Dutch Embassy will present a complaint to Peru's foreign
ministry, the lawyer said. Embassy representatives did not
immediately reply to a request for comment.
Van der Sloot, a Dutch national from Aruba, was arrested in
relation to Holloway's disappearance but never charged with her
alleged abduction. The teen's remains have never been found, but
an Alabama judge declared her legally dead in January 2012.
Peru's Council of Ministers issued an executive order last month
allowing the temporary extradition of Van der Sloot.
He will face extortion and wire fraud charges "as part of a
scheme to supposedly lead the (Holloway family) to the body of
their deceased daughter," a statement from Peru's authorities
said when the extradition was confirmed.
Interpol's Lopez said an aircraft from the U.S. Federal Bureau
of Investigation will land in Lima on Thursday morning for the
extradition.
(Reporting by Anthony Marina; Writing by Marco Aquino and
Valentine HilaireEditing by Marguerita Choy and Leslie Adler)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
![](../../22/NEWS/column_spacer.png)
|
|