Page 5 - aruba-today-20230512

A5
WORLD NEWS Friday 12 May 2023
Dutch suspect in Natalee Holloway disappearance faces

extradition from Peru to US on fraud charges

By REGINA GARCIA CANO just before he went to Peru.
and FRANKLIN BRICENO An FBI agent wrote in an
Associated Press affidavit that van der Sloot
LIMA, Peru (AP) — Peru’s reached out to Holloway’s
government will allow the mother and wanted to be
extradition to the United paid $25,000 to disclose the
States of the prime suspect location and then another
in the unsolved 2005 dis- $225,000 when the remains
appearance of American were recovered. During a
student Natalee Holloway recorded sting operation,
on the Dutch Caribbean Is- van der Sloot pointed to a
land of Aruba, bringing her house where he said Hol-
family hope there will be loway was buried but in
justice in the case. later emails admitted to ly-
Dutch citizen Joran van ing about the location, the
der Sloot will be sent to agent said.
the U.S., Peru announced Peru’s Minister of Justice
Wednesday, to face trial Daniel Maurate said in a
on extortion and wire fraud statement Wednesday the
charges, stemming from an government decided to
accusation that he tried to “accept the request” from
extort the Holloway family U.S. authorities “for the tem-
after their daughter’s dis- Joran van der Sloot sits in the courtroom before his sentencing at San Pedro prison in Lima, Peru, porary transfer” of van der
appearance. Jan. 13, 2012. Sloot to be prosecuted on
Holloway, who lived in sub- Associated Press extortion and fraud charg-
urban Birmingham, Ala- along with two Surinamese Flores, a business student connection to the Hollo- es. In Peru, all extraditions
bama, was 18 when she brothers, weeks later. Hol- from a prominent family, way case. A grand jury in must be approved by the
was last seen during a trip loway’s body was never to rob her after learning Alabama in 2010 indicted president.
with classmates to Aruba. found, and no charges she had won money at the van der Sloot on wire fraud The U.S. Department of Jus-
She vanished after a night were filed in the case. casino where the two met. and extortion charges, ac- tice on Thursday declined
with friends at a nightclub, A judge later declared Hol- They said he killed her with cusing him of trying to ex- to comment on the extra-
leaving a mystery that loway dead. “ferocity” and “cruelty,” tort hundreds of thousands dition.
sparked years of news cov- Years later, van der Sloot beating then strangling of dollars from the Hollo- A resolution published in
erage and countless true- was arrested in Peru for the her in his hotel room. He ways. the South American coun-
crime podcasts. She was 2010 murder of 21-year-old pleaded guilty in 2012, and Prosecutors in the U.S. al- try’s federal register states
last seen leaving a bar with Stephany Flores, who was is serving 28 years in prison lege van der Sloot accept- that U.S. diplomats on Jan.
van der Sloot, then 18 years killed five years to the day for the murder. ed $25,000 in cash from Hol- 10 presented the tempo-
old. after Holloway’s disappear- But his extradition to the loway’s family in exchange rary extradition request to
Van der Sloot was identified ance. Prosecutors accused U.S. stems from an alleged for a promise to lead them Peru’s Ministry of Foreign
as a suspect and detained, van der Sloot of killing attempt to profit from his to her body in early 2010, Relations. q

Serbians hand over thousands of weapons after mass shootings

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — place in a school for the or face prison sentences. ranges, and tougher pun- illegal possession of weap-
Serbian citizens have hand- first time ever in Serbia. Other anti-gun measures ishment for the illegal pos- ons.
ed over nearly 6,000 unreg- Authorities have told citi- include a ban on new gun session of weapons. The two shootings have
istered weapons in the first zens to give up unregis- licenses, stricter controls on The school shooter was a sparked calls for changes
three days of a month-long tered weapons by June 8 gun owners and shooting 13-year-old boy who used and more tolerance in Ser-
amnesty period that is part his father’s gun to open fire bia’s society. Thousands
of an anti-gun crackdown on his fellow students at an have marched in opposi-
following two mass shoot- elementary school in cen- tion-led protests in Belgrade
ings last week, police said tral Belgrade last Wednes- and other towns, demand-
Thursday. day, police have said. A ing resignations of populist
Police also have received day later, a 20-year-old government ministers as
nearly 300,000 rounds of man opened fire with an well as a ban on television
ammunition and about 470 automatic weapon in a ru- stations that air violent con-
explosive devices during ral area south of the capital tent and host war criminals.
the same period, the Ser- city. More protests are planned
bian Interior Ministry said on Serbia is estimated to be on Friday.
Instagram. among the top countries Serbia’s populist president,
The effort to rid Serbia of ex- in Europe when it comes to Aleksandar Vucic, has ac-
cessive guns was launched gun possession per capita, cused opposition parties of
after 17 people were killed which are partly left over using the tragedy for politi-
in two mass shootings last from the wars in the 1990s. cal ends.
week and 21 were wound- People march during a protest against violence in Belgrade, On Wednesday, police ar- He has announced plans
ed, many of them children. Serbia, Monday, May 8, 2023. rested the father of the sus- for an own rally in late
One of the shootings took Associated Press pected village shooter for May.q