Joran van der Sloot, prime suspect in Natalee Holloway’s disappearance, pleads not guilty to extortion charges after his extradition to the US
Joran van der Sloot, the prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway, pleaded not guilty on Friday to attempting to extort money from the missing teenager’s mother.
Van der Sloot was extradited to the United States on Thursday from Peru, where he is serving a 28-year prison sentence after confessing to killing a Peruvian woman.
He was arraigned before a federal judge in Birmingham, not far from the suburb where Holloway grew up, in his first court appearance in the case.
US prosecutors say that in 2010 van der Sloot contacted Beth Holloway, asking for $250,000 to reveal the location of the young woman’s body.
A grand jury indicted him that year.
Natalee’s mother watched the proceedings from the third row of the courtroom.
“For 18 years I have lived with the unbearable pain of losing Natalee,” Beth Holloway said in a statement Thursday. “Each day has been filled with unanswered questions and a desire for justice that has eluded us at every turn. But today…I hope a little semblance of justice can finally be achieved.
Van der Sloot is charged with one count of extortion and wire fraud – the only charges to ever link the Dutch citizen to Holloway’s disappearance on the Caribbean island of Aruba.
He was returned to the United States about a month after the two countries agreed on his extradition.
Chained and dressed in jeans and a white t-shirt, van der Sloot refused to use a Dutch interpreter offered to him during Friday’s arraignment.
He sat next to his public defender, Kevin Butler, who pleaded not guilty on his behalf during the brief proceedings.
Natalee Holloway, 18, was on a high school graduation trip with classmates in Aruba when she disappeared in 2005.
She was last seen leaving a bar with van der Sloot, who was a student at an international school on the island.
Van der Sloot was identified as the prime suspect and detained weeks later for questioning, along with two Surinamese brothers, but no charges were filed in the case.
A judge pronounced Holloway dead, but her body was never found.
