Extortion trial against Joran van der Sloot, suspect in Natalee Holloway case, delayed

Associated Press
·2 min read

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. − A federal judge agreed to delay Joran van der Sloot's trial on extortion charges until later this year in order to give his defense more time to prepare.

Van der Sloot, the chief suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway, is charged with trying to extort money from the missing teen’s mother in exchange for revealing where to find her daughter’s remains.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Gray Borden on Tuesday granted van der Sloot's request to postpone the trial, which will now occur sometime after Dec. 4.

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Joran van der Sloot sits in the courtroom before his sentencing at San Pedro prison in Lima, Peru. e suspect in the unsolved 2005 disappearance of American Natalee Holloway in the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba. A judge in September 2023 delayed Sloot's trial on extortion charges in the Holloway case until later in the year.
Joran van der Sloot sits in the courtroom before his sentencing at San Pedro prison in Lima, Peru. e suspect in the unsolved 2005 disappearance of American Natalee Holloway in the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba. A judge in September 2023 delayed Sloot's trial on extortion charges in the Holloway case until later in the year.

A granted continuance

Van der Sloot’s attorney Kevin Butler had asked for the continuance from the October trial docket to give more time to “review the discovery, investigate this case, and prepare for trial.”

Federal prosecutors did not oppose the request. The trial date will be set by a separate order by a district judge.

“Given the defendant’s need to adequately prepare his defense and to make an informed decision on whether to enter a guilty plea or proceed to trial, the court finds that the ends of justice served by extending the pretrial deadlines and granting a continuance,” Borden wrote.

Joran van der Sloot extradited to US: Joran van der Sloot to face extortion trial in Natalee Holloway case

A side-by-side mock up showing a June 4, 2010 file photo of Dutch citizen Joran van der Sloot is escorted by police officers outside a Peruvian police station, near the border with Chile in Tacna, Peru. The second photo is of Natalee Holloway, an American woman van der Sloot is suspected of murdering in Aruba in 2005.
A side-by-side mock up showing a June 4, 2010 file photo of Dutch citizen Joran van der Sloot is escorted by police officers outside a Peruvian police station, near the border with Chile in Tacna, Peru. The second photo is of Natalee Holloway, an American woman van der Sloot is suspected of murdering in Aruba in 2005.

A recent extradition

Although he’s not on trial for harming Holloway, the extortion and wire fraud charges are the only alleged crimes that link the Dutch citizen to Holloway’s unsolved disappearance on the Caribbean island of Aruba. The 18-year-old went missing during a high school graduation trip with classmates and was last seen leaving a bar with van der Sloot, a student at an international school on the island where he grew up.

Van der Sloot was extradited to the United States from Peru, where he’s serving a 28-year sentence after confessing to killing a Peruvian woman in 2010.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Joran van der Sloot extortion trial delayed in Alabama