Ernesto Benowitz/AFP via Getty Images
Joren van der Sloot was transferred from a prison in Peru in a police vehicle on Thursday.
CNN
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Joren van der Sloot Landed in the United States, where he is accused of extorting money from the mother of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway, who was last seen with a Dutch national and two others in Aruba 18 years ago.
FBI agents flew Van der Sloot on a US Department of Justice flight to the airport in Birmingham, Alabama, where he landed Thursday afternoon.
He was taken to a jail in Birmingham, not far from Holloway’s hometown of Mountain Brook.
He is scheduled to appear in federal court in Birmingham at 11 a.m. Friday, according to court records.
Van der Sloot was charged in 2010 on federal charges of extortion and wire fraud in connection with a conspiracy to sell information about the whereabouts of Holloway’s remains in exchange for $250,000 An accusation Filed in the Northern District of Alabama.
Butch Dill/AP
An FBI-operated plane carrying Joren van der Sloot arrives at Birmingham International Airport, Thursday, June 8, 2023, in Birmingham, Alabama.
Beth Holloway, the missing 18-year-old’s mother, paid $15,000 into Van der Sloot’s bank account in the Netherlands and gave him another $10,000 in person through an attorney, according to the indictment. After he received the initial $25,000, van der Sloot showed attorney John Kelly where Natalee Holloway’s remains were allegedly hidden, but the indictment says the information was false.
Holloway’s remains were never found, and a judge in Alabama signed an order in 2012. declared legally dead.
Agents arrived in Peru — where van der Sloot is being held in prison for murdering another woman — Wednesday afternoon, a law enforcement source familiar with the operation told CNN.
The FBI used one of its planes for what it called a foreign policing operation. Typically, the team consists of two FBI special agent pilots, at least one additional sub-team member, and several agents providing security for the detainee. On many long-haul flights, a doctor also accompanies the crew.
Prisoners are monitored at all times and wear restraints. The flight from Lima to Birmingham on Gulf 550 took about six and a half hours.
Van der Sloot was seen leaving Ancon 1 prison in Lima early Thursday morning as he was driven away in a black van while in law enforcement custody. He arrived at Peru’s Air Force Base in Grupo, where he is expected to be turned over to the FBI, officials said.
Peru initially agreed to extradite van der Sloot to the United States to face those charges only after he had served his sentence for murder. But last month, The country changed course and agreed to temporarily extradite him to face US charges, after which he would return to Peru, the country’s Justice Department said.
Justice Minister Daniel Mouret said Peru agreed to van der Sloot’s “temporary transfer to the United States because he is being condemned here and he must serve his sentence here.” “But since the US needs him to face trial, officials told us that if he doesn’t get there soon, the case against him may be dropped because the witnesses are old.”
On Wednesday, a high court in Lima, Peru, ordered van der Sloot to be handed over to FBI agents, according to a statement posted on social media on Tuesday.
“With this decision, the judge has completed the transfer (passive extradition) proceedings of Joren van der Sloot, who is being prosecuted in the United States for extortion and fraud charges against Elizabeth Ann Holloway,” the report concludes. .
The announcement comes a day after Van der Sloot’s lawyer filed a habeas corpus petition. Temporary relocation of his client From a Peruvian prison to the United States. According to court documents dated June 5, van der Sloot’s lawyer, Maximo Altes, argued that his transfer should be halted because it was not officially notified.
The petition contradicts Altes’ previous statements. On May 30, he told CNN en Espanol that his client had agreed to the transfer and that he did not expect to submit a habeas corpus application. “I want to go to America,” Van der Sloot told Altes in a letter.
CNN attempted to reach Altez for further comment.
Van der Sloot was imprisoned in Peru’s Ancon 1 prison after being accused of murdering 21-year-old Stephanie Flores in her Lima hotel room in 2012. He 28 years sentence In prison.
Holloway was last seen alive 18 years ago with van der Sloot and two other men leaving a nightclub in Aruba.
Police in Aruba arrested and released three men — van der Sloot and brothers Deepak and Satish Kalbo — several times in 2005 and 2007 in connection with Holloway’s disappearance. During the trial, the men’s lawyers maintained their innocence.
In December 2007, the Aruban public prosecutor’s office announced that none of the three would be charged and dropped the charges against them, citing insufficient evidence.
