Joran Van Der Sloot, the Dutch man charged in relation to the 2005 disappearance of American student Natalee Holloway, pleaded not guilty to fraud and extortion today at his first court appearance on US soil.
Dutch national Van der Sloot, now 35, was a 17-year-old international student on the island of Aruba when Natalee, 18, vanished in May 2005 during a school trip.
He was offered a translator in court today but told the judge: ‘That’s really not necessary.’
Natalee’s mother Beth sat in the third row as he pleaded not guilty.
He was immediately identified as a suspect, after being seen leaving a bar with her, and was taken into custody on suspicion of her murder multiple times but always released without charge.
In 2010, he was indicted on suspicion of extortion and wire fraud after allegedly offering Natalee’s mother the location of her body in exchange for $250,000.
Before federal authorities could take him into custody, he skipped town, fleeing for Peru, where he went on to murder Stephany Flores. He pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 28 years in prison.
Joran van der Sloot is in the federal courthouse in Birmingham, Alabama, this morning. He is shown arriving in a blacked out Ford. Van der Sloot pleaded not guilty to fraud and extortion
Joran Van Der Sloot, the Dutch man now charged in relation to the 2005 disappearance of American student Natalee Holloway, will appear in court today in Alabama after being extradited from Peru. He is shown yesterday arriving in Alabama after being extradited from Peru
Holloway disappeared aged 18 while on a school trip in Aruba. She was last seen with Van der Sloot
It wasn’t until May this year that his extradition to the US to face charges for Natalee’s disappearance got underway.
Van der Sloot was yesterday extradited from Peru, where he is serving a 28-year sentence for murdering another woman.
Today, he went before a judge in the Hugo Black federal courthouse in Birmingham, Alabama, at 11am today.
Ahead of that appearance, the Holloway family attorney, John Q. Kelly, appeared on NBC’s Today show.
‘She is overwhelmed by the whole situation she had a whole spectrum of emotions.
‘On the one hand she was ecstatic he’s on US soil, but it’s still like pulling a scab off an old wound. You’ll always have pain there. He is a painful reminder of what she’s been through,’ he said of Natalee’s mother, Beth.
Kelly met Van der Sloot twice in 2010 when he tried to extort Beth.
‘[He is] big guy, kind of an ominous presence, all business about money. That’s all he cares about, that’s all he wants to talk about.
‘[He is] cold, heartless and has absolutely no sympathy, empathy, no feelings whatsoever for Beth, her family, or what they’ve been through.
‘He just wants the money,’ he said.
He added that Van der Sloot is the only key to finding Natalee’s body.
‘He’s going to have to decide at some point if he wants to take a breath of fresh air outside of prison, down the road, or not.’
When he was charged this week, Van der Sloot was already serving a 28-year sentence in a Peruvian prison for murdering another woman. His attorney says he had planned to fight extradition.
DailyMail.com previously revealed his plans to claim that Holloway’s mother approached him offering him money in exchange for information about where her body might be.
Ahead of that appearance, the Holloway family attorney, John Q. Kelly, appeared on NBC’s Today show
John Q. Kelly, longtime lawyer of Natalee Holloway’s family, joins @craigmelvin to share how the family is feeling amid the news that Joran van der Sloot, the prime suspect in the disappearance of Holloway, will face an American judge for the first time. pic.twitter.com/UmdU7kuYWl
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) June 9, 2023
Van der Sloot was a 17-year-old international student on the island when Natalee disappeared. He was identified as a suspect weeks after her disappearance in 2005 (above)
Natalee’s mother, Beth, says Van der Sloot asked her for $250,000 in exchange for the location of Natalee’s body
Today’s court hearing will be the first time the Holloway family comes face to face with him in court.
Yesterday, Holloway´s mother, Beth said she was ‘overcome with mixed emotions.’
‘As a mother who has tirelessly pursued justice for the abduction and murder of my precious daughter, I stand before you today with a heart both heavy with sorrow and yet lifted by a glimmer of hope.
For 18 years, I have lived with the unbearable pain of Natalee´s loss.
‘Each day has been filled with unanswered questions and a longing for justice that has eluded us at every turn.
‘But today…I am hopeful that some small semblance of justice may finally be realized.’
Holloway was last seen alive leaving a bar with Van der Sloot, who was a student at an international school on the island.
In 2012, van der Sloot pleaded guilty in Peru to killing 21-year-old Stephany Flores, a business student from a prominent Peruvian family. She was killed in 2010 five years to the day after Holloway´s disappearance.
Van der Sloot married a Peruvian woman in July 2014 in a ceremony at a maximum-security prison.
He was transferred among Peruvian prisons in response to reports that he enjoyed privileges such as television, internet access and a cellphone, and accusations that he had threatened to kill a warden.
Now 35, Van der Sloot was extradited from Peru to the US last night
