Dutchman Joran van der Sloot is transferred to Lima prison for extradition to the US

The Dutchman Joran van der Sloot, suspected of the disappearance of the young American Natalee Holloway in 2005, was transferred by land to Lima to later comply with his temporary extradition to the United States, where he will be able to remain for a maximum of two years, reported authorities and his lawyer on Saturday.

The National Penitentiary Institute of Peru reported in a statement on the transfer under strict security measures of van der Sloot to a prison in the Peruvian capital in compliance with the resolution of a criminal judge of the Superior Court of Justice of Lima that determined the extradition from Dutch.

Máximo Altez, van der Sloot’s defender, told The Associated Press that his client was being taken by land from the city of Tacna on a trip that could take 24 hours to the Piedras Gordas prison, on the outskirts of Lima. Neither the prison entity nor the lawyer specified when the transfer began.

Altez estimated that once the administrative procedures with the US authorities are completed and an examination is performed on his state of health, his client will be transferred to the United States, although he did not specify the city. He said the extradition could take place on Tuesday.

The Dutchman, who is also serving a sentence in Peru for the murder of a woman in 2010, agreed to be tried in the North American country for the crimes of alleged extortion and fraud, linked to the disappearance of Holloway.

His defender explained to the AP that, according to the treaties in force between Peru and the United States, Van der Sloot will be able to go to that country for one year to undergo a judicial process and, in the event of a delay, it can be extended for another year.

“At the end of which he has to be returned, even if he has not been sentenced,” so he will be “at most, two years in the United States,” he said.

Asked by the AP about the reasons that led his client to agree to be tried in the United States, the lawyer stated that “he is imprisoned in the worst prison in the world”, in reference to the prison in Challapalca, for which reason “any prison of the United States is a five-star hotel,” he added.

Altez said that his client denies being guilty of the crimes of extortion and fraud.

The Dutchman was prosecuted in Alabama in 2010 on charges of trying to extort thousands of dollars from Holloway’s family in exchange for providing information on where his body was located. He subsequently traveled to Peru where he is serving a 28-year prison sentence for the murder of a Peruvian woman.

Holloway disappeared in 2005 during a trip with schoolmates to the Caribbean island of Aruba. She was 18 years old when she was last seen leaving a bar accompanied by Van der Sloot, who became her prime suspect and was later arrested. The young woman’s body was never located, so a judge declared her dead.

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