Suspect in Natalee Holloway disappearance to be extradited to U.S.
A Dutchman blamed for the disappearance of 18-year-old American Natalee Holloway in 2005 will be extradited from Peru to the United States in connection with a fraud case, Peruvian officials said on Wednesday.
Joran van der Sloot serves a 28 years imprisonment in Peru for the year 2010 killing from a 21-year-old Peruvian woman.
He was arrested but never convicted for the disappearance of Holloway, who disappeared in Aruba in 2005.
The US case involves fraud and extortion involving Holloway’s mother, Elizabeth Holloway, who calls herself Beth, the Peruvian government said in a statement approving van der Sloot’s extradition 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 road, but the perseverance of many will pay off. Together we can finally get justice for Natalee,” she said.
According to court documents, Van der Sloot was indicted in Birmingham, Alabama, in 2010 on two state counts of racketeering and wire fraud.
A criminal complaint filed in 2010 alleges that van der Sloot arranged for thousands of dollars to be sent to the Netherlands with promises that the whereabouts of Natalee Holloway’s remains and details of her death would be released.
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 another $10,000 to a lawyer in New York who was to deliver the money personally to van der Sloot in Aruba.
He gave the attorney a location in Aruba where he said Holloway’s remains were buried, but that was a lie, federal prosecutors said.
According to the court documents, the charges in this case were interference with trade by threat or force and wire fraud.
The conspiracy involved an attempt to wire a total of $250,000, an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit in the US fraud case.
Attorney Maximo Altez, representing van der Sloot, said The Associated Press that he will appeal the decision as soon as he is duly notified by the Peruvian government.
“I will appeal this resolution,” Altez said. “I will oppose it as he has the right to a defense.”
Holloway, who is from Alabama, was never found. She went to Aruba on a high school graduation trip and never returned. A judge later pronounced her dead.
Van der Sloot was arrested and released in this case and never charged.
The Associated Press contributed.
