Joran van der Sloot confesses to killing Natalee Holloway in 2005: report

Joran van der Sloot has confessed to the American authorities that he killed Natalee Holloway. The 18-year-old American woman disappeared in Aruba in 2005. His confession will be announced during a court case in Alabama in the United States on Wednesday, De Telegraaf reports.

The FBI has investigated Van der Sloot’s confession in recent months and considers it credible, partly due to a lie detector test he took last week, according to the newspaper. The Dutchman’s confession means that the United States prosecutor now considers the case around Holloway’s disappearance solved.

In exchange for his confession and an admission of guilt for extorting Holloway’s family, the prosecutor in Alabama offered Van der Sloot a reduced sentence of 20 years in prison. If the court approves the deal on Wednesday, Van der Sloot will be flown back to Peru to serve the rest of his sentence for murdering the Peruvian woman Stephany Flores and drug smuggling. That sentence ends in 2045.

According to the newspaper, Van der Sloot won’t get any extra punishment in the United States for Holloway’s murder. Because he killed her in Arua and is still a suspect there, the United States has no legal options to try Van der Sloot for the murder.

The Dutchman could still be summoned to Aruba, where the authorities must prove that he killed Holloway with a premeditated plan - the condition needed for a murder conviction. If they can’t, Van der Sloot will be charged with manslaughter, which has already reached its statute of limitations on the island.