Joran van der Sloot, prime suspect in Natalee Holloway case, to be transferred to U.S. custody from Peru this week

Joran van der Sloot, the prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway in Aruba, will be handed over to U.S. authorities in Peru on June 8, Peru’s prison spokesperson confirmed to CBS News.

Van der Sloot, who is currently serving a 28-year prison sentence in Peru for the murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores, will be temporarily transferred to the U.S. to face fraud and extortion charges in relation to an alleged plot to sell false information about Holloway’s whereabouts to her family.

Holloway went missing in 2005 after leaving a nightclub in Aruba with Van der Sloot, a Dutch national who resided there at the time. She was never found, and in 2012, an Alabama judge declared her legally dead. 

Van der Sloot, after being questioned multiple times, was never charged in the case.

Peru’s Ambassador to the U.S., Gustavo Meza-Cuadra, said earlier that he hoped Van der Sloot’s temporary extradition to face the U.S. charges would “enable a process that will help to bring peace to Mrs. Holloway and to her family, who are grieving in the same way that the Flores family in Peru is grieving for the loss of their daughter, Stephany.”