Joran van der Sloot, who has been linked to the 2005 disappearance of an American teenager, Natalee Holloway, pleaded not responsible to extortion and fraud costs in court docket in Birmingham, Ala., on Friday after he was quickly extradited from Peru to the USA.
At his look on the Hugo L. Black United States Court docket Home, Mr. van der Sloot spoke solely to say no the companies of a Dutch translator and to acknowledge that he understood the fees in opposition to him.
He pleaded not responsible by means of his lawyer, Kevin Butler, a federal public defender.
Earlier than arriving in Alabama on Thursday afternoon, Mr. van der Sloot, 35, had been serving a jail sentence in Peru, the place he pleaded responsible to the 2010 homicide of a 21-year-old Peruvian scholar, Stephany Flores.
Final month, the Peruvian authorities introduced that they’d quickly enable his extradition to make sure that he “lastly faces justice” in the USA.
“Peru was very instrumental on this course of,” stated George Seymore, a consultant for Beth Holloway, Natalee’s mom. “They didn’t have to permit this course of to go ahead.”
Across the time of his arrest within the Flores case, Mr. van der Sloot was indicted by a federal grand jury in Alabama on costs of attempting to extort Ms. Holloway for $250,000 for details about how her daughter died and the place was her physique, which has by no means been discovered.
He accepted an preliminary cost of $25,000 in an F.B.I. sting operation and gave what he knew was false info, the authorities stated on the time.
Natalee Holloway was 18 when she disappeared after an evening out in Aruba on Could 30, 2005, throughout a visit together with her Alabama highschool class. A decide declared her legally lifeless in 2012, however the unsolved case has generated public curiosity for years.
“Now, 18 years later, the wheels of justice have lastly begun to show for our household, and we’re getting our long-awaited day in court docket,” Ms. Holloway stated in an announcement. “With the felony arraignment full, prosecution of this prison case has formally begun.”
Ms. Holloway added that Mr. van der Sloot’s not responsible plea was “not disheartening to us” and that she was assured federal prosecutors would achieve a conviction.
Attorneys for the Holloway household count on the case to go to trial, however the timing stays unclear.
“Whereas in the present day’s arraignment represents a major step ahead, we should do not forget that the pursuit of justice is much from over,” John Q. Kelly, a lawyer for Beth Holloway, stated in an announcement.
Mr. van der Sloot was being held on the Shelby County Jail in Alabama as of Friday.
If he’s discovered responsible within the extortion case, he’ll first return to Peru to finish the remainder of his 28-year sentence for the homicide of Ms. Flores, who was killed by strangulation, earlier than returning to the USA for jail time.
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