Joran van der Sloot Extradited in 2038, Peru's Officials Say
Joran van der Sloot will not step foot on U.S. soil before 26 years pass, Peruvian officials said this weekend. Once those 26 years are up, van der Sloot will be extradited to the U.S. and he will likely face questioning for his part in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway.
Van der Sloot was reportedly with Holloway in 2005, when she disappeared during a school trip to Aruba. She was later pronounced dead, and van der Sloot went to Peru. Five years after Holloway's death, Stephany Tatiana Flores Ramirez went missing, and van der Sloot was the main suspect. He confessed to her murder, and was sentenced to 28 years in prison.
He has already served two years, which means that he will be eligible for release in 26 years. Peruvian officials have agreed to extradite van der Sloot to the U.S. where he has been indicted on charges of extortion and wire fraud. He is accused of trying to extort money from Natalee Holloway's mother in exchange for information about her whereabouts.
It's been a matter of contention whether the country of Peru would cooperate with the U.S. in the extradition, but now it is clear that they want to make sure van der Sloot serves his time for murdering one of their own before being released to the U.S. Authorities believe that van der Sloot killed Ramirez after she found something incriminating related to the Holloway case on his computer. That claim was never verified, though, but her death set off a chain of reactions.
U.S. authorities want the chance to question van der Sloot about his relationship with Holloway and what he knows about her disappearance. He accepted a bribe of $25,000 from Holloway's mother in exchange for information about Natalee's whereabouts and then fled to Peru, where he met Ramirez. After stealing cash and credit cards from the young woman, he went to Cuba.
Authorities took him into custody after finding Ramirez's body and will keep him in custody until 2038.