Peru’s government issued an executive order Wednesday allowing the prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of American student Natalee Holloway on the island of Aruba to be temporarily extradited to the United States.
The Peruvian Embassy in Washington told The Associated Press the order allows for the extradition of Dutchman Joran van der Sloot to be prosecuted for alleged extortion and wire fraud, charges stemming from the Holloway case.
Van der Sloot is serving 28 years in Peruvian prison. He was convicted of murdering 21-year-old Peruvian student Stephany Flores after meeting her in a Lima casino in 2010.
The slaying occurred five years to the day after Holloway disappeared during a high school graduation trip to the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba, where Van der Sloot lived. She was last seen leaving a bar with him.
Holloway’s body was never found, and no charges were filed against Van der Sloot in the case. A judge later declared Holloway dead.
Prosecutors in the U.S. allege Van der Sloot accepted $25,000 US in cash from Holloway’s family in exchange for a promise to lead them to her body in early 2010, just before he went to Peru.
Treaty allows temporary extradition
In a statement, Edgar Alfredo Rebaza, director of Peru’s Office of International Judicial Cooperation and Extraditions of the National Prosecutor’s Office, said that at a time of increasing cross-border transit, Peru’s institutions would ensure that criminals are brought to justice.
“We will continue to collaborate on legal issues with allies such as the United States, and many others with which we have extradition treaties,” the statement said.
A 2001 treaty between Peru and the U.S. allows a suspected to be temporarily extradited to face trial in the other country. It requires that the prisoner “be returned” after judicial proceedings are concluded “in accordance with conditions to be determined by” both countries.
Van der Sloot pleaded guilty in January 2012 to a murder charge in the slaying of Flores.
Prosecutors accused him of killing Flores, a business student from a prominent family, to rob her of money she won at the casino where the two met.
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