Joran van der Sloot: two murders, a 28-year sentence and a temporary extradition to the US | International

"I would never kill a girl," the Dutchman Joran van der Sloot told the press firmly, back in 2008, when he was still free, but was already the main suspect in a murder. The victim was named Natalee Holloway, a young American girl who had graduated from high school and traveled to Aruba in May 2005 to celebrate. She was last seen in the company of Van der Sloot, then 17, and the Surinamese brothers Satish and Deepak Kalpoe. Then began a tortuous search for the Holloway family, especially since those involved changed their version several times.

Van der Sloot, who has been arrested twice and spent his first three months in prison, initially said he dropped Natalee Holloway off at her hotel and didn't hear from her again, and then they went to the beach and said goodbye. . Until in February 2008, a Dutch television documentary showed a confession that Van der Sloot made to a collaborator who had earned his trust for months and who had hidden cameras inside a car. He recounted that the girl suffered a convulsion and that, since she did not respond, he knew that she was dead and called a friend to dispose of her body. He threw her into the sea. “Everything ended better than she ever dreamed, because they never found her. If they had found her, I would be sunk in shit, ”he recounted coldly in the video.

Discovered, Van der Sloot said that his testimony was a lie and that he had invented everything to impress his companion. Incredible as it may seem, justice did not consider that the documentary was sufficient evidence and did not arrest him. Two years later, in February 2010, the Dutchman contacted Beth Holloway, the victim's mother, and asked her for $25,000 in exchange for giving her information on the coordinates where Natalee's remains could be found. According to the FBI, $15,000 was transferred to her bank account and the rest was paid in cash. But van der Sloot reneged on the agreement and went on the run.

Shortly after, at the end of May, he appeared in Peru for a poker tournament, where he met Stephany Flores, a 21-year-old Peruvian. He seduced her, invited her to her hotel room and ended her life. She punched her in the face, tried to strangle her, and suffocated her with a shirt. He too escaped, but was detained a few days later in Chile, and taken back to Peru, where he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 28 years in prison and $75,000 civil compensation. From then on he has been held in the Piedras Gordas prison and since 2014 in Challapalca, a maximum security prison, almost 5,000 meters above sea level, in the mountains of the Tacna region.

Joran van der Sloot, who married and had a daughter in prison, will serve his sentence in June 2038. Everything indicated that he would not leave Peru. However, the Permanent Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court agreed on Wednesday to a request from the United States: a temporary delivery so that he can be tried for the alleged crimes of extortion and fraud. They refer to the $25,000 that he would have taken from the family of Natalee Holloway, who, by the way, issued a statement. “I have been blessed to have Natalee in my life for 18 years, and starting in May, I will be without her for exactly 18 years. She would now be 36 years old. It has been a very long and painful journey, but the persistence of many will pay off. Together, we are finally getting justice for Natalee," mother Beth Holloway wrote. Regarding the situation of Van der Sloot, the Judiciary has made it clear that "(United States) must keep the defendant in custody during the entire procedure that is followed in its territory." Once the process is complete, van der Sloot will be returned to Peru.

Follow all the international information on Facebook and Twitteror in our weekly newsletter.