BIRMINGHAM, ALA. – Joran van der Sloot, the primary suspect in the disappearance of Alabama student Natalee Holloway in 2005, could be extradited imminently, Peru’s ambassador to the United States said during a television interview on Friday.
Peruvian officials announced late Wednesday that van der Sloot would be temporarily extradited to the United States, where he will face extortion and wire fraud charges. He is currently in a Peru prison after being sentenced to 28 years for the murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores in a Lima hotel room.
“We are working [to extradite van der Sloot] as soon as possible,” Ambassador of Peru in the United States Gustavo Meza-Cuadra told ABC News on Friday. “We are refining some details of this process.”
George Patriot Seymore, a spokesperson for Natalee Holloway’s mother, Beth Holloway, told Fox News Digital that the extradition will happen within a week.
File picture dated Jan. 6, 2012, of Dutch national Joran van der Sloot during his preliminary hearing in court in the Lurigancho prison in Lima. The Peruvian Supreme Court has approved the extradition of Joran van der Sloot to the U.S. on charges of extorting money from the family of missing Alabama teen Natalee Holloway. (ERNESTO BENAVIDES/AFP/GettyImages)
“A matter of days to a week,” Seymore said. “The process is underway.”
Van der Sloot was indicted in 2010 on charges of extortion and wire fraud in the United States after he allegedly tried to sell information on where Natalee Holloway’s body was located.
He asked for a total of $250,000 with $25,000 upfront for the information, with the rest of the money to be paid out when Natalee Holloway’s remains were positively identified in Aruba, where she went missing.
“We are working [to extradite van der Sloot] as soon as possible”
Prosecutors allege that he led John Q. Kelly, the family’s lawyer, to a site where Holloway’s remains were claimed to be located. Van der Sloot lied about the location of the remains, prosecutors said in the July 2010 indictment.
Beth Holloway fights back tears as she participates in the launch of the Natalee Holloway Resource Center on June 8, 2010, in Washington, D.C. The nonprofit resource center was founded by Holloway and the National Museum of Crime & Punishment and was created to assist families of missing persons. Beth Holloway’s daughter Natalee was the Alabama teen who disappeared in Aruba. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Jun 18, 2005; Birmingham, AL, USA; (FILE PHOTO) NATALEE HOLLOWAY, 18, with her father, DAVE HOLLOWAY on her graduation day from Mountain Brook High School in Mountain Brook, Alabama on May 24, 2005. Holloway vanished May 30 while on a five-day senior trip to Aruba with more than 100 classmates and seven adult chaperones. Mandatory Credit: Photo by Courtesy Beth Twitty/ZUMA Press (©) Copyright 2005 by Courtesy Beth Twitty (Courtesy Beth Twitty/ZUMA Press )
In January 2012, van der Sloot pleaded guilty to killing Flores, and Natalee Holloway was legally declared dead that month.
Holloway’s body was never found.
NATALEE HOLLOWAY, SUSPECT JORAN VAN DER SLOOT: TIMELINE OF ALABAMA TEEN’S DEATH
Peruvian Justice Minister Daniel Maurate said to reporters after the extradition was announced that van der Sloot will serve time in an American prison after he finishes his sentence in Peru if he is convicted in the United States.
“In regard to Mr. (Joran) van der Sloot, we have made a temporary relocation to the United States, because he is condemned here, and he must serve his sentence here. But since the U.S. needs him in order to face trial and the authorities told us that if he didn’t get there sooner, the case against him could be dropped because the witnesses are elderly. We are contributing so he can go there to be tried and sentenced, and come back to Peru to serve his sentence here. Once he finishes his sentence in Peru, he’ll go to the U.S. to serve his corresponding sentence there,” Maurate said.
A sign of Natalee Holloway, an Alabama high school graduate who disappeared while on a graduation trip to Aruba, is seen on Palm Beach, in front of her hotel in Aruba, Friday, June 10, 2005, as a ribbon in her memory blows in the breeze. On Wednesday, May 10, 2023, the government of Peru issued an executive order allowing the temporary extradition to the United States of Joran van der Sloot, the prime suspect in Holloway’s unsolved disappearance. (AP Photo/Leslie Mazoch)
Jun 18, 2005; Birmingham, AL, USA; (FILE PHOTO) NATALEE HOLLOWAY, 18, with her her date, HENRY ENNIS, before her senior prom in Mountain Brook, Alabama on May 13, 2005. Holloway vanished May 30 while on a five-day senior trip to Aruba with more than 100 classmates and seven adult chaperones. Mandatory Credit: Photo by Courtesy Beth Twitty/ZUMA Press (©) Copyright 2005 by Courtesy Beth Twitty (Courtesy Beth Twitty/ZUMA Press )
“We’ll take all the security measures so this person has no opportunities to escape. We trust American authorities. I think they have efficient ways to ensure this person will not escape in the U.S.,” Maurate added.
Natalee Holloway’s mother, Beth, said in a statement on Wednesday that justice is finally being served.
NATALEE HOLLOWAY SUSPECT JORAN VAN DER SLOOT TO BE EXTRADITED TO US, BETH HOLLOWAY SAYS
“I was blessed to have had Natalee in my life for 18 years, and as of this month, I have been without her for exactly 18 years. She would be 36 years old now. It has been a very long and painful journey, but the persistence of many is going to pay off. Together, we are finally getting justice for Natalee,” Beth Holloway said.
“…if [Joran van der Sloot] didn’t get there sooner, the case against him could be dropped because the witnesses are elderly.”
Beth Holloway also said sthat she is grateful for everyone involved in the extradition effort.
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Joran van der Sloot of the Netherlands is transferred from the police headquarters to the prosecutor’s office in Lima June 10, 2010, for the killing of 21-year-old Stephany Flores, whose body was found in a Lima hotel room. (REUTERS/Stringer )
“While I will have much more to say later about what is happening, for now I want to express my sincere gratitude to President Dina Boluarte, the President of Peru, the warm people of Peru, the family of Stephany Flores, the FBI in Miami, Florida and in Birmingham, Alabama, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Birmingham, the U.S. Embassy in Peru and the Peruvian Embassy in the U.S., my longtime attorney John Q. Kelly who has worked tirelessly on this case, and George Seymore and Marc Wachtenheim of Patriot Strategies,” Beth Holloway said.
Reuters and Fox News’ Michael Ruiz and Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
