Joran van der Sloot Pleads Not Guilty in Natalee Holloway Extortion Case
Joran van der Sloot, who has been linked to the 2005 disappearance of an American teenager, Natalee Holloway, pleaded not guilty to extortion and fraud charges in court in Birmingham, Ala., on Friday after he was temporarily extradited from Peru to the United States.
At his appearance at the Hugo L. Black United States Court House, Mr. van der Sloot spoke only to decline the services of a Dutch translator and to acknowledge that he understood the charges against him.
He pleaded not guilty through his lawyer, Kevin Butler, a federal public defender.
Before arriving in Alabama on Thursday afternoon, Mr. van der Sloot, 35, had been serving a prison sentence in Peru, where he pleaded guilty to the 2010 murder of a 21-year-old Peruvian student, Stephany Flores.
Last month, the Peruvian authorities announced that they would temporarily allow his extradition to ensure that he “finally faces justice” in the United States.
Source: The New York Times
