The lawyer for the prime suspect in Natalee Holloway’s disappearance has filed to block his extradition to the US.
Joran van der Sloot, who is currently serving a 28-year prison sentence in Peru, had his attorney file a habeas corpus petition to stop his temporary transfer to face charges related to the teenager’s death.
‘He does not want to be extradited to the United States of America,’ said his lawyer Maximo Altez, who said the decision was made after a meeting with Dutch diplomats.
‘He was visited today by his embassy [representatives] who made him see the mistake he was making by being extradited without due process,’ he added.
Van der Sloot was moved from a maximum facility prison to Lima on Saturday, and was set to be taken to Birmingham, Alabama to face trial before his last-minute attempt to stay in South America.
Van der Sloot, a citizen of Holland, has been serving a 28-year sentence in Peru for the 2010 murder of 21-year-old college student Stephany Flores. He was recently beaten by fellow inmates, according to his attorney
Natalee’s body has never been found and she was declared legally dead in 2012
The surprise move comes just days after the suspect previously agreed to be extradited – but the Dutch citizen is still expected to be handed over to US authorities later this week, according to CNN.
Van der Sloot’s anticipated extradition came after he was indicted on federal charges of extortion and wire fraud for allegedly offering information to Holloway’s parents about her remains in exchange for money.
Natalee was 18 when she disappeared from the Caribbean island of Aruba during a trip with school friends in 2005.
The teenager was last seen leaving a nightclub with van der Sloot and two of his friends. Her body has never been found and she was declared legally dead in 2012.
Van der Sloot was indicted by a grand jury in 2010 on one count each of wire fraud and extortion, each of which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Prosecutors allege that he reached out to the teenager’s mother asking for $25,000 to disclose the location of her daughter’s body.
He then allegedly demanded a further $225,000 if the body was found, and a sting operation saw van der Sloot initially single out a house he claimed her body was buried in.
In later emails, the suspect admitted to lying about the location, an FBI agent claimed in an affidavit.
Natalee was 18 when she disappeared from the Caribbean island of Aruba during a trip with school friends in 2005
Van der Sloot, with whom Natalee had been the night of her disappearance, was detained as a suspect in the case, but ultimately released
And in a stunning move, a DailyMail.com investigation revealed that he is now expected to protest his innocence and make the extraordinary accusation that it was actually Natalee’s mother, Beth, who approached van der Sloot offering money if he took her to her daughter’s body.
His attorney, Maximo Altez, said his client wanted to be extradited to clear his name.
‘He was living his life in Aruba and got a call from Beth Holloway, who tricked him,’ he claimed.
‘She said: “Joran, tell me where the body is and I’ll give you $250,000.” He never asked for money, she’s the one that offered.
‘She even gave him an advancement and he never asked for the rest. He only got $25,000.’
Altez explained that his client is a ‘sick person’ and ‘compulsive gambler’, who ‘needed the money to play at the casino’. However, he claimed Mrs Holloway ‘took advantage of him’.
In his 2007 book, ‘The Case of Natalee Holloway: My Own Story about her Disappearance on Aruba’, van der Sloot admitted lying to police and apologized to the Holloways.
He wrote: ‘I understand that my lies in the past seriously tarnished my credibility.’
He maintained his innocence, explaining that he had left an intoxicated Natalee on the beach, where he said she wanted to ‘watch the stars’.
In 2012, van der Sloot pleaded guilty to the murder of a young Peruvian woman in 2010
Van der Sloott is currently serving a 28-year prison sentence for the 2010 murder of Stephany Flores, 21, who was killed five years to the day after Natalee’s disappearance.
Peruvian prosecutors accused van der Sloot of killing Flores, a business student from a prominent family, to rob her after learning she had won money at the casino where the two met.
They said he killed her with ‘ferocity’ and ‘cruelty,’ beating then strangling her in his hotel room. He pleaded guilty in 2012.
Last month, Altez claimed van der Sloot had been severely beaten by fellow inmates and had since been moved to the jail’s medical aisle.
