Joran van der Sloot, the principle suspect in the unsolved 2005 disappearance of American teen Natalee Holloway, has arrived in Alabama to face federal extortion and wire fraud charges.
The Dutch citizen used to be passed over to the FBI on Thursday morning to be extradited from Peru, the place he were serving a 28-year sentence for the 2010 homicide of 21-year-old Stephany Flores.
Van der Sloot’s airplane took off for the U.S. Thursday morning from an army base in Lima. He landed in Birmingham Thursday afternoon.
In Alabama, van der Sloot faces federal extortion and wire fraud charges stemming from an accusation that he attempted to take advantage of his connection to the Holloway case. He is scheduled to be arraigned Friday at 11 a.m. CT in a Birmingham courthouse.
“For 18 years, I have lived with the unbearable pain of Natalee’s loss,” Holloway’s mother, Beth Holloway, stated in a observation Thursday. “Each day has been filled with unanswered questions and a longing for justice that has eluded us at every turn. But today, with her perpetrator’s extradition to the United States, I am hopeful that some small semblance of justice may finally be realized, even though no act of justice will heal the pain we’ve endured.”
Mark White, lawyer for Holloway’s father, Dave Holloway, advised ABC News on Thursday that “federal defendants awaiting trial are typically housed in one of the state county jails that has a contract with the federal government. And so they will pick one that has absolute security because the defendant is a flight risk.”
“The defendant has already been convicted of one violent crime, and so he will be in very tight custody,” White stated.
Holloway, an 18-year-old from Alabama, went lacking in May 2005 on a highschool commencement go back and forth in Aruba. She used to be ultimate observed with a bunch of younger males, together with van der Sloot, then 17.
Van der Sloot, who used to be detained as a suspect in Holloway’s disappearance and later launched, used to be indicted via an Alabama federal grand jury in 2010 for allegedly attempting to extort Holloway’s circle of relatives.
Federal prosecutors alleged that in March 2010 van der Sloot contacted Beth Holloway thru her attorney and claimed he would divulge the positioning of the teenager’s frame in trade for $250,000, with $25,000 paid prematurely. During a recorded sting operation, Beth Holloway’s lawyer, John Q. Kelly, met with van der Sloot at an Aruba lodge, giving him $10,000 in money as Beth Holloway stressed $15,000 to van der Sloot’s checking account, in accordance to prosecutors.
Then, van der Sloot allegedly modified his tale concerning the night time he used to be with Natalee Holloway, prosecutors stated. Van der Sloot claimed he had picked Natalee Holloway up, however she demanded to be put down, so he threw her to the bottom. Van der Sloot stated her head hit a rock and he claimed she died immediately from the have an effect on, in accordance to prosecutors.
Van der Sloot then took Kelly to a area and claimed that his father, who had since died, buried Natalee Holloway in the construction’s basis, prosecutors stated.
Kelly later emailed van der Sloot, announcing the information he had supplied used to be “worthless,” in accordance to prosecutors. Within days, van der Sloot left Aruba for Peru.
White known as the extortion and wire fraud case “some form of accountability,” however “not accountability for the ultimate transgression of what a lot of people think this person did to their child.”
White stated he feels “more than 100%” sure that van der Sloot is aware of the place Natalee Holloway’s frame is situated.
“Beth and Dave Holloway, they have been living every parent’s worst nightmare,” he stated. “We all hope … that somehow the truth will come out.”
ABC News’ Amanda McMaster contributed to this file.
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