Joran van der Sloot Pleads Not Guilty to Federal Charges
WE’LL SEE ABOUT THAT
Joran van der Sloot, the prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway, pleaded not guilty to federal charges of extortion and wire fraud in an Alabama courthouse on Friday. The Dutch national was extradited Thursday to the U.S. from Peru, where he is serving a 28-year-long sentence for an unrelated murder. Van der Sloot was one of the last people to see 18-year-old Holloway before she vanished during a high-school class trip to Aruba, garnering feverish international news coverage. Prosecutors alleged he attempted to scam Holloway’s family of $250,000 in exchange for the false location of the American teen’s body, accepting $25,000 up front to lead the mother’s attorney to the body, ABC 7 News reported. No one has been charged in Holloway’s disappearance. U.S. Marshals will hold van der Sloot in custody until his trial.