EXCLUSIVE: Interpol officials will begin coordinating extradition plans Friday for Joran van der Sloot, the prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway, according to the agency’s Peruvian chief.
Van der Sloot is facing charges in the U.S. concerning Natalee Holloway’s 2005 disappearance during a Mountain Brook High School, Alabama, senior trip in Aruba. At the time, she was staying at a Holiday Inn resort in Noord, Aruba.
He’s being charged with extortion and wire fraud after allegedly trying to sell information regarding the whereabouts of Natalee Holloway’s body to Beth Holloway. He allegedly asked for a total of $250,000 — $25,000 upfront for the information, with the rest of the money to be paid out when Natalee Holloway’s remains were positively identified in Aruba, where she went missing.
However, prosecutors in the U.S. allege van der Sloot lied to Beth Holloway’s lawyer, John Q. Kelly, about where her daughter’s remains were located.
In a Thursday interview with Fox News Digital, Col. Carlos López Aeda, the chief of Interpol in Lima, Peru, said he’s meeting with the FBI and officials with Peru’s National Penitentiary Institute to discuss details of van der Sloot’s extradition.
“The United States has already promised to return Joran after the process defined there. We are going to proceed with the extradition,” López Aeda said. “[Friday], I meet with the FBI and the prison police to coordinate the details of their transfers and define the extradition date.”
López Aeda added that while extraditions can be done through “a commercial flight,” van der Sloot’s extradition will “most likely” take place on a U.S. government airplane.
López Aeda told Fox News Digital the meeting with the FBI and Peru’s National Penitentiary Institute will happen in person.
George Patriot Seymore, Beth Holloway’s spokesperson, told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that the FBI is handling the extradition, which is happening “within a week.” The FBI declined to comment.
López Aeda’s comments come after van der Sloot’s lawyer, Maximo Altez, said the prime suspect in Natalee Holloway’s disappearance will not appeal the extradition.
Altez said van der Sloot is looking forward to fighting the wire fraud and extortion charges in the U.S., and said his client didn’t reach out to the Holloway family, but was “entrapped.”
Van der Sloot is facing a prison sentence in Peru for the murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores in 2010. His original sentence was 28 years, but got more time handed to him because of a drug smuggling scandal in prison.
Natalee Holloway’s body was never found. In January 2012, van der Sloot pleaded guilty to killing Flores, and Natalee Holloway was legally declared dead that month.
Natalee Holloway’s mother, Beth, said in an earlier statement shared with Fox News Digital that justice the extradition gives a chance for justice to finally be served.
“I was blessed to have had Natalee in my life for 18 years, and as of this month, I have been without her for exactly 18 years. She would be 36 years old now,” Beth Holloway said. “It has been a very long and painful journey, but the persistence of many is going to pay off. Together, we are finally getting justice for Natalee.”
Fox News’ Michael Ruiz and Haley Chi-Sing contributed to this report.
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