Aruba considering options to prosecute Joran van der Sloot for killing Natalee Holloway
The Public Prosecution Service (OM) in Aruba may prosecute Joran van der Sloot for killing Natalee Holloway after his confession this week, a spokesperson for the OM told CNN. The Aruban authorities asked the United States authorities for the court documents, including a transcript of his confession, to consider the options.
The statute of limitation for manslaughter - killing someone without a premeditated plan - in Aruba is 12 years. Holloway died 18 years ago. While on trial in the United States for extorting Holloway’s parents, Van der Sloot confessed to bludgeoning the young American woman to death with a cinder block when she refused his sexual advances and pushing her body into the ocean.
“The Public Prosecutor’s Office will reiterate that the Holloway case remains an open investigation in Aruba,” an OM spokesperson told CNN. Whether prosecution will be possible depends on “several factors within the investigation,” she said. “Bear in mind also that we don’t know yet what is in the official court documents and documents related to the investigation.”
Van der Sloot confessed on Wednesday as part of a deal with the American judiciary for a reduced sentence for extorting Holloway’s family. The court sentenced him to 20 years in prison on Wednesday.
Van der Sloot will now return to Peru, where he is serving 28 years for murdering the Peruvian woman Stephany Flores and 18 years for drug smuggling. That sentence ends in 2045. The extortion sentence will run concurrent to these sentences.
