http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/09/joran-van-der-sloot-us-extradition_n_1503871.html all credir

A Peruvian court will soon issue a decision on whether to allow convicted killer Joran van der Sloot to be extradited to the United States on charges of extortion in the case of Natalee Holloway. The Dutchman may have far worse charges to fear, however, according to an international defense expert who said the extortion extradition is a ruse. "With all the bad guys running around -- Al Qaeda and other international terrorists -- do you really think the U.S. is going to go after every guy who tries to extort money from a U.S. citizen? Absolutely not. The U.S. wants to get ahold of him and charge him with Holloway's murder," said Michael Griffith, senior partner at the International Legal Defense Counsel. A U.S. federal grand jury indicted van der Sloot in June 2010, for soliciting money from Beth Holloway in exchange for information about her daughter, Natalee Holloway. The 18-year-old from Alabama disappeared on a trip to Aruba in 2005. Holloway's classmates said they last saw her leaving Carlos 'n Charlie's nightclub with van der Sloot, then a 17-year-old Dutch honors student living in Aruba, and his two friends, Surinamese brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. All three young men were arrested in the case, but then were released and never charged. The alleged extortion plot began in March 2010, when van der Sloot reportedly agreed to provide Beth Holloway with details on her daughter's death and the location of her body in exchange for $250,000. A Holloway family attorney working with the FBI provided van der Sloot with an initial payment of $10,000 in cash and wired him an additional $15,000. Beth Holloway was to pay the remaining $225,000 upon confirmation of her daughter's remains. Van der Sloot kept the $25,000, but later confirmed by email that the information he provided was "worthless," according to the indictment. As authorities continued to build their case, van der Sloot used the $25,000 to fund a trip to play in a poker tournament in Peru, where he was arrested for the murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores. The Peruvian business student was found stabbed to death in van der Sloot's Lima hotel room on June 2, 2010. Police in Peru say Flores was killed on May 30, the five-year anniversary of Holloway's disappearance. On Jan. 13, van der Sloot, 24, was sentenced to 28 years in prison for the murder of Stephany Flores. He could be paroled after serving one-third of his sentence. The process to extradite van der Sloot from Peru began in April, when a Peruvian judge approved a U.S. request for a provisional detention. On Tuesday, van der Sloot and his attorney appeared in court opposite representatives from the U.S. Embassy and the FBI. During the three-hour proceeding, U.S. officials presented their case against van der Sloot. Afterward, Judge Zenaida Vilca went over the details of the extradition request with the Dutchman. His attorney, Maximo Altez, said his client was against the extradition and said he did not feel he would get a fair trial in the U.S. "In the United States, they would find him guilty. Over there, Joran is, after Osama bin Laden, the most hated person there is," Altez told AFP. No decision was made at the close of the hearing. Vilca will make his recommendation to Peru's Supreme Court and if the court approves it, the case will go to the Ministry of Justice in Peru for a final decision. If extradited and convicted in the U.S., van der Sloot would face a five- to 10-year sentence for the alleged extortion. Under the U.S.-Peru extradition treaty, van der Sloot could be extradited only if he returns to complete his 28-year prison sentence. However, if his client is extradited, Altaz said he doubts van der Sloot would be returned to Peru. "Once he's in the U.S., there are no guarantees that he would not be charged with Holloway's murder," Altaz told ABC News. Griffith, a veteran attorney who has counseled and represented clients in more than 40 countries, also doubts van der Sloot would be returned to Peru. "It would be too much trouble and Peru would be getting rid of a huge public relations problem," Griffith said. "This case has cast a spotlight on their country and their prisons and, of course, they don't like that. They don't want their dirty clothes hung out in front of the press and that's what's been happening." Joran van der Sloot attends the continuation of his murder trial at San Pedro prison in Lima, Peru, on Jan. 11, 2012. Van der Sloot pleaded guilty on Wednesday to the 2010 murder of a 21-year-old Peruvian woman he met at a Lima casino who was killed five years to the day of the unsolved disappearance in Aruba of an American teen in which he remains the main suspect.Griffith said it is also likely that Ricardo Flores, father of Stephany Flores and a respected businessman who once ran for president, would likely support van der Sloot's possible incarceration in the U.S. "Van der Sloot is living like a king in that foreign prison," Griffith said. "In the States, they would probably put him in a supermax prison, where he would be on lockdown 23 hours a day." Griffin could be right about Ricardo Flores. In January, Flores complained to reporters that van der Sloot was enjoying favorable conditions in a Lima prison. "A jail isn't a five-star hotel," Flores said. In regard to Holloway, Altaz told ABC News, "no such evidence exists" connecting his client to Holloway's murder. Van der Sloot has, however, allegedly made multiple confessions in the case that may come back to haunt him: •In June 2005, he told police that he and Deepak and Satish Kalpoe went for a car ride with Holloway and then dropped her off at her hotel, where they last saw her stumbling toward the lobby. •Roughly five days later, van der Sloot gave a slightly different version to police, claiming he and Holloway had gone to a beach, but that she had insisted on being left there when he decided to catch a ride home. •In February 2006, a Dutch television station aired a hidden-camera confession that van der Sloot had made, claiming Holloway had died of a drug overdose at the beach and that he and a friend had dumped her body at sea. Following the broadcast, van der Sloot acknowledged making the comments, but said they were lies. •In November 2008, van der Sloot told Fox News host Greta Van Susteren that he had sold Holloway for $10,000 to a man he met in a casino. After the interview, van der Sloot called Fox and said he had been lying. •In March 2010, yet another statement by van der Sloot to the media was made public. In a 2009 interview with the German news agency RTL, van der Sloot said Holloway "fell" from a balcony and was killed. He hid Holloway's body in a swamp because he was afraid of being prosecuted, according to reports of the interview, which never aired. While the confessions alone might not be enough, Griffith said authorities in the U.S. could target the Kalpoe brothers -- even though neither is considered a suspect or person of interest in the case. "They could put pressure on them -- say to their lawyers, 'we want to serve you with a subpoena and we want their cooperation and we'll give them immunity from any charges. If you don't, we'll give their names to Interpol and have them added to the stop list.'" Griffith added, "They could be the weak link in the chain. They were with him that night." According to Peruvian media outlets, a decision on the indictment could take several weeks. Joran van der Sloot

credit CNN

CNN) -- Joran van der Sloot told a judge and prosecutor Tuesday that he would prefer to finish serving a 28-year murder sentence in Peru rather than be extradited to the United States to face charges related to the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, his Peruvian lawyer said. Representatives from the U.S. Embassy and the FBI attended the extradition hearing, which was not open to the public, Maximo Altez told InSession on Tru TV. A conviction in the United States could affect van der Sloot's chances of being paroled in Peru, said Altez. He noted that a long-standing extradition treaty between the two countries means that van der Sloot will likely be extradited, despite his stated preference about remaining in Peru. Peruvian judges in January sentenced the Dutchman to 28 years in prison for the murder in 2010 of Stephany Flores. He is also the prime suspect in the disappearance of Holloway. U.S. authorities want to try van der Sloot on charges of extortion and wire fraud in the Holloway case. I think he will be extradited within the next three months," Altez said last month. "He will go to trial in the United States. Once he is sentenced, he will return to Peru to finish serving his 28 years, and then go back to the States to serve whatever sentence he gets there." In June 2010, a federal grand jury in Alabama indicted him after allegations that he tried to extort $250,000 from Holloway's mother, Beth Holloway. Van der Sloot offered to provide what turned out to be bogus information about the whereabouts of Holloway's remains in exchange for the money, according to the indictment. He was allegedly given $25,000, which authorities say he used to travel to Peru for a poker tournament. If found guilty of extortion, he could be sentenced to 25 years in prison. Van der Sloot admitted to killing Flores, 21, in his Lima hotel room. The judges gave him a sentence two years short of the 30-year maximum. They ordered he be expelled from Peru at the end of his sentence and required him to pay about $74,500 in reparations to Flores' relatives. Van der Sloot confessed to robbery in addition to murder, admitting that he stole Flores' belongings, including more than $300 in local currency, credit cards and the victim's van as a means to leave the country. He fled to Chile and was arrested a few days later. Another van der Sloot attorney, Jose Luis Jimenez, has said that his client was under special stress the day of the 2010 murder, which marked five years after Holloway, an 18-year-old from Alabama, disappeared while vacationing on Aruba. Van der Sloot, who was among the last people reported to have been seen with Holloway, was detained twice but never charged in the case. "The world had been against him for five years before this case, for a murder he said he never committed and for which there is no evidence whatsoever," Jimenez has said. Investigators have said they believe van der Sloot killed Flores after she found something related to the Holloway case on his computer while visiting him in his hotel room. The two met while van der Sloot was in town for the poker tournament. Judges described how Flores hit van der Sloot in the face after reading the item on Holloway, leading him to hit her in the face with his elbow. Flores fainted and van der Sloot tried to strangle her, but she was still breathing, so he suffocated her with his shirt. Van der Sloot then tried to clean the room by removing the sheets and changing his bloodied shirt, they said. He was caught in a taxi near the Chilean central coastal city of Vina del Mar. Holloway's body has not been found, and no one has been charged in relation to the case in Aruba. About 6½ years after Holloway was last reported seen, in May 2005, she was declared legally dead.

Joran van der Sloot

UPDATE: 8: 19 p.m. -- The process to extradite Joran van der Sloot from Peru to the United States has begun, CNN reports. Documents obtained by Maximo Altez, van der Sloot's attorney, show a judge has approved the U.S. request for a provisional detention, the first step in sending him to America to face charges for extorting money from the mother of missing teen Natalee Holloway. PREVIOUSLY: Joran van der Sloot, the convicted killer of a young Peruvian woman and the prime suspect in the disappearance of missing American teen Natalee Holloway, could soon be extradited to the United States. Van der Sloot's attorney, Maximo Altez, has confirmed Peruvian authorities are evaluating a request by the U.S. to extradite the Dutchman for extorting Holloway's mother. Altez said his client is afraid of extradition because U.S. prisons have a reputation for being "very hard" on inmates, according to the Associated Press. On Jan. 13, Van der Sloot, 24, was sentenced to 28 years in prison for the murder of Stephany Flores. The Peruvian business student was found stabbed to death in van der Sloot's Lima hotel room on June 2, 2010. Police in Peru say Flores, 21, was killed on May 30, the five-year anniversary of the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, an 18-year-old from Mountain Brook, Ala., who vanished while on a class trip to Aruba. She was last seen leaving an Oranjestad nightclub with van der Sloot, then a 17-year-old Dutch honors student living in Aruba. Holloway's body has never been found, and van der Sloot has not been charged in her disappearance. He was, however, indicted in the U.S. on charges that he extorted $25,000 from the young woman's parents. Prosecutors said that in exchange for the money, he promised to reveal how Holloway died and the location of her body. Van der Sloot would probably face a five- to 10-year sentence for the alleged extortion. The most recent developments were predicted months ago by Michael Griffith, senior partner at the International Legal Defense Counsel. In a previous interview with The Huffington Post, Griffith, whose most renowned case, involving an American incarcerated in a Turkish prison, was the basis for the film and book "Midnight Express." said he expected van der Sloot to be extradited. However, Griffith said the move would likely be a ploy so the U.S. could get him in their grips for Holloway’s alleged murder -- something that could earn him a life sentence. "The key to that is that the U.S. has jurisdiction over anybody, anywhere in the world, who kills or injures a U.S. citizen. It kind of originated with the Leon Klinghoffer case," said Griffith. In 1985, Klinghoffer, 69, and his wife were celebrating their 36th wedding anniversary on the cruise ship Achille Lauro. Palestinian terrorists hijacked the liner, and Klinghoffer was murdered and thrown overboard. The hijackers were later given safe passage on a flight to Tunisia, but U.S. military forces intercepted the plane and forced it to land in Italy, where the suspects were taken into custody. That principle, which has been used in limited cases, is being used more often today and could be applied to the Holloway case. Van der Sloot's alleged statements, along with his previous confessions in the case, are enough for U.S. authorities to make a circumstantial murder case against him, Griffith said. Joran van der Sloot attends the continuation of his murder trial at San Pedro prison in Lima, Peru, on Jan. 11, 2012. Van der Sloot pleaded guilty on Wednesday to the 2010 murder of a 21-year-old Peruvian woman he met at a Lima casino who was killed five years to the day of the unsolved disappearance in Aruba of an American teen in which he remains the main suspect. Whether or not van der Sloot is charged with murder in the U.S. is yet to be seen. However, Max Altez, the attorney who briefly represented van der Sloot after his arrest in the Flores case, said he expects authorities in Peru to agree to the extradition. He also expects his former client to be found guilty of extortion. "He will be sentenced in U.S. and then be brought to Peru to serve his sentence for the murder of Stephany Flores," Altez predicted to News America . Authorities in Peru have yet to comment on when they will make a decision on the extradition. Meanwhile, van der Sloot remains imprisoned at Piedras Gordas prison in Ancon. credit huffingtonpost

Natalee Holloway Suspect To Be Extradited To U.S.

Joran Van Der Sloot, the prime suspect in the disappearance of American Natalee Holloway in Aruba in 2005, will soon be extradited to the U.S. to face charges of extortion. He is currently in Peru serving 28 years for the 2010 murder of Stephany Flores, who was stabbed to death in his hotel room. Van Der Sloot confessed to the murder as well as robbery, saying he took cash and the victim’s car in which to escape. The 24-year old was the last person to see Natalee Holloway alive and told authorities he would lead them to her body and reveal how she died in exchange for $250,000. He was allegedly given $25,000 by Holloway’s mother, Beth, which he used to travel without revealing any of the promised information. He faces a sentence of 25 years if found guilty of extortion, and the extradition will commence within the next few months. But some think the U.S. courts want Van Der Sloot here in the states so that a trial can be held regarding Holloway’s death, which will be difficult since her body has never been found. She has, however, been declared legally dead, and officials believe Van Der Sloot murdered Stephany Flores because she found incriminating evidence on his computer. “The key to that is that the U.S. has jurisdiction over anybody, anywhere in the world, who kills or injures a U.S. citizen,” said Michael Griffith, senior partner for the International Legal Defense Council. On Van Der Sloot’s future, his Peruvian attorney, Maximo Altez, said, “I think he will be extradited within the next three months. He will go to trial in the United States. Once he is sentenced, he will return to Peru to finish serving his 28 years, and then go back to the States to serve whatever sentence he gets there.”

Van der Sloot sentenced to 28 years

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: With time served, Joran van der Sloot will be released in 2038
• Judges order van der Sloot to pay about $74,500 in reparations
• He's also ordered expelled from Peru after completing his sentence
• Van der Sloot was visibly upset after the sentencing

(CNN) -- Peruvian judges on Friday sentenced Dutch national Joran van der Sloot to 28 years in prison and ordered him to pay thousands of dollars in reparations for the killing of a 21-year-old Peruvian woman in 2010.
Van der Sloot, who was visibly upset after the decision was issued, admitted this week to killing Stephany Flores in his Lima hotel room. The judges said they took his confession into account, but they still gave him a sentence two years short of the 30-year maximum.
With time served, it means van der Sloot is scheduled to be released June 10, 2038.
The defendant, 24, stood for much of the more than two-hour session and perspired through his green t-shirt. He drank three cups of water and frequently wiped his face.
The judges ordered van der Sloot expelled from Peru at the end of his sentence and ordered him to pay 200,000 Peruvian new soles, or about $74,500, in reparations to Flores' closest relatives.
Van der Sloot confessed to robbery in addition to murder, admitting that he stole Flores' belongings, including 850 soles (more than $300), credit cards, and the victim's van as a means to leave the country. He fled to Chile and was arrested a few days later.

Van der Sloot pleads guilty to murder

Natalee Holloway declared legally dead

Joran van der Sloot: 'I feel very bad'

Nancy Grace: 'Cut his mic'

It was an apparent attempt to win a more lenient sentence, using a plea called an "anticipated conclusion of the process" under Peruvian law. Five days earlier, the three judges delayed the start of van der Sloot's trial after he declined to give a plea after expressing reservations about the "aggravating factors" tied to admitting his guilt.
Van der Sloot's attorney, Jose Luis Jimenez, pressed earlier this week for a shorter sentence.
Jimenez claimed that his client was under special stress the day the 2010 murder occurred, which marked five years after Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway went missing in Aruba.
Van der Sloot -- who, with two others, was among the last people seen with Holloway - was detained twice, but never charged, in the high-profile international case.
"He was pointed at and persecuted. The world had been against him for five years before this case, for a murder he said he never committed and for which there is no evidence whatsoever," said Jimenez.
Investigators have said they believe van der Sloot killed Flores after she found something related to the Holloway case on his computer while visiting him in his hotel room. The two met while van der Sloot was in town for a poker tournament.
Judges on Friday recounted the crime in detail. They described how Flores hit van der Sloot in the face after reading the item on Holloway, leading him to hit her in the face with his elbow. Flores fainted and van der Sloot tried to strangle her, but she was still breathing and so he suffocated her with his shirt.
Van der Sloot then tried to clean the room by removing the sheets and changing his bloodied shirt, they said.
He was ultimately caught while traveling alone in a taxi near the Chilean central coastal city of Vina del Mar.
Holloway's body has never been found, and no one has been charged in relation to the case in Aruba. But van der Sloot does face possible extradition to the United States in a related matter.
In June 2010, a federal grand jury in Alabama indicted him on charges of wire fraud and extortion after allegations surfaced that he tried to extort $250,000 from Holloway's mother, Beth. Van der Sloot offered to provide what turned out to be bogus information about the whereabouts of Holloway's remains in exchange for the money, according to the indictment.
He was allegedly given a total of $25,000, and authorities believe he used that money to travel to Peru for the poker tournament.
Thursday, about six and a half years after Holloway went missing, Alabama Probate Judge Alan King signed an order declaring the teenager legally dead.

Natalee Holloway legally dead

Natalee Holloway legally dead

By msnbc.com staff and news servicesBIRMINGHAM, Ala. - An Alabama judge agreed Thursday to declare Natalee Holloway legally dead, more than six years after the teenager vanished on the Caribbean island of Aruba.
Judge Alan King announced his decision at a hearing Thursday requested by the teen's father, Dave Holloway, who was in court with Beth Holloway, his ex-wife and Natalee's mother. He told the judge in September he believed his daughter had died and he wanted to stop paying her medical insurance and use her college fund for her brother.
Thursday's hearing had been scheduled before a suspect questioned in Holloway's disappearance, Dutchman Joran van der Sloot, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Peru to the 2010 murder of a woman there.

Natalee Holloway disappeared on a high school graduation trip May 30, 2005. She was last seen leaving a bar with van der Sloot. Her body was never found.
One of Dave Holloway's attorneys, J. Mark White, said at Thursday's hearing, "No evidence has been found that Natalee Holloway is alive," reported The Birmingham News.
Dave Holloway said he had expected to hear the judge would declare his daughter dead because he had no doubt about that. "We've been dealing with her death for the last six and a half years," he said.
He added that the judge's order closes one chapter in a long story, but added: "We've still got a long way to go to get justice.
Beth Holloway, Natalee's mom, didn't speak at the hearing, but her lawyer said she supported the request to declare her daughter legally dead, according to The Birmingham News.

/

Natalee Holloway of Mountain Brook, Ala. went missing while on a high school graduation trip in Aruba.

Holloway suspect: I killed woman in Peru
On Wednesday, Van der Sloot pleaded guilty to the 2010 murder of Stephany Flores, a 21-year-old woman who died five years to the day after the disappearance of Holloway.
Van der Sloot was arrested twice in the Holloway case but he was never charged due to a lack of evidence. Holloway's family has criticized Dutch authorities for not making more progress in the case.
Van der Sloot has told police he strangled Flores, a skilled poker player and the daughter of a wealthy businessman, after he found her looking at his laptop computer in his hotel room.
The laptop contained emails about Holloway's death.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Judge asked to declare Natalee Holloway dead

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A judge holds a hearing Thursday on whether to sign a court order declaring Natalee Holloway dead more than six years after she disappeared in Aruba. The hearing comes one day after a suspect questioned in her disappearance, Joran van der Sloot, pleaded guilty to killing a woman in Peru.
Jefferson County Probate Judge Alan King is hearing a request by Natalee Holloway's father to have her declared dead. The judge ruled in September that Dave Holloway had met the legal presumption of death and it was up to someone to prove she didn't die on a high school graduation trip. The father's attorney, Mark White, says no new evidence has come forward and he will ask the judge to rule her dead.
Attorneys say both parents plan to attend.