Natalee Holloway’s killer Joran van der Sloot, who recently confessed to killing the American high school student in 2005 in Aruba, returned to Peru Tuesday to serve the remainder of his prison sentence in a separate murder.
Van der Sloot, 36, admitted to killing Holloway after she rebuffed his advances by kneeing him in the crotch outside of a bar in Aruba more than 15 years ago.
The Dutchman is already serving a 28-year sentence in Peru for beating, strangling and suffocating 21-year-old Stephany Flores there in 2010. That sentence began in 2012.
As part of an agreement with Peruvian authorities, federal prosecutors agreed to return van der Sloot back to the Andean nation to serve out his sentence. He arrived in Alabama in June.
Van der Sloot arrived at a military airport in Lima in the custody of law enforcement.
Natalee Holloway’s killer Joran van der Sloot, who recently confessed to killing the American high school student in 2005 in Aruba, returned to Peru Tuesday to serve the remainder of his prison sentence in a separate murder. Pictured: van der Sloot is handed over to police in Peru
Natalee Holloway’s heinous killer Joran van der Sloot may still face murder charges in Aruba – where the investigation into her disappearance is still open. The two had met at a bar where Natalee had been celebrating her high school graduation, the night before she was due to return to the US on May 30, 2005
Stephany Flores Ramirez, 21, was found murdered at the Miraflores Hotel Tac in Lima, Peru, in April 2010. Joran van der Sloot, the 23-year-old Dutch playboy twice arrested in the mysterious disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway, was arrested soon after and according to police confessed to the murder
On Monday morning, he was taken from Shelby County Jail in Birmingham, Alabama, where he has been held since his confession, to the local airport.
.com previously reported that it is unlikely that the killer will ever be prosecuted for his crime in the US thanks to an elaborate plea deal with prosecutors.
Interpol earlier had said that van der Sloot was scheduled to arrive Monday afternoon in the Peruvian capital of Lima.
The US Justice Department said it does not comment about timing of such extradition transfers for safety reasons.
Van der Sloot had been temporarily extradited to the US to face charges linked to Holloway’s disappearance, a case that has drawn international attention over the course of two decades.
He was handed a 20-year sentence in exchange for providing all the details he knew about Holloway’s disappearance and death.
A few days ago, he admitted that he killed Holloway and disposed of her remains. The disclosure came as he pleaded guilty to charges of trying to extort money from Holloway’s mother in return for information about the location of the body.
U.S. authorities do not have jurisdiction to prosecute van der Sloot for the 2005 slaying on a beach in Aruba, where the statute of limitations for murder has expired. But the revelations have given long-sought answers to Holloway’s next-of-kin.
The Dutch citizen was sentenced to 20 years in prison in the U.S. for extortion and wire fraud, but as part of his plea agreement, that sentence will run concurrently with another one in Peru, where he’s serving a 28-year prison sentence for killing Flores in 2010.
A handout photo made available by the National Police of Peru shows Dutch national Joran van der Sloot during his arrival in custody at a military airport in Lima
Van der Sloot, 36, will continue serving a 28-year sentence for the 2010 murder of Stephany Flores, a 21-year-old Peruvian woman
Natalee Holloway’s killer remains in the US after the plane that was due to take him back to Peru to serve out a separate sentence for murder malfunctioned, here he is arriving in June
This poster which was prepared and released by the Holloway family after she first went missing in 2005
A 2001 treaty between Peru and the U.S. allows a suspect to be temporarily extradited to face trial in the other country.
The killer initially pleaded not guilty in federal court in Birmingham, Alabama, to charges that he had conspired to get Holloway’s mother, Beth Holloway, to pay him $250,000 in 2010 in exchange for revealing the location of her daughter’s remains.
‘You are a killer and I want you to remember that every time that jail cell door slams,’ Beth Holloway said in court after van der Sloot entered his plea.
In entering his guilty plea and waiving his right to appeal, van der Sloot apologized to the Holloway family and said he had embraced Christianity since the murder.
District Judge Anna Manasco sentenced him to 20 years in prison, to be served concurrently with his sentence in Peru, followed by three years of supervised release.
Holloway, an 18-year-old from a Birmingham suburb, went missing in 2005 during a high school graduation trip to the Caribbean island of Aruba, a territory of the Netherlands.
Eyewitnesses said she was last seen leaving a bar in a car with van der Sloot on the night of her disappearance. While her remains were never found, an Alabama judge declared her legally dead in 2012.
‘Today marks the end of 18 years of wondering what happened to Natalee Holloway,’ U.S. Attorney Prim Escalona told reporters after the hearing.
A judge declared Holloway dead but her body has never been found
Dutch authorities in Aruba arrested van der Sloot twice on suspicion of murder, but ultimately released him for lack of evidence.
Working with the FBI in a sting operation, Holloway’s family wired a portion of the demanded money, $25,100, to van der Sloot in 2010, but he then provided false information about where Holloway’s remains were buried.
In sentencing, Judge Manasco also ordered van der Sloot to pay $25,100 to Beth Holloway in restitution.
After the hearing, Beth Holloway said justice had been served.
‘Van der Sloot’s confession means we’ve finally reached the end of our never-ending nightmare,’ she told reporters. ‘Natalie’s case is closed, as far as I’m concerned. It’s over.’