Joran van der Sloot

55

Joran van der Sloot : biography

06 August 1987 –

In December 2010, Time magazine named Van der Sloot’s arrest the most important criminal event of the year, ahead of the Belgian love triangle skydiving murder case, the Chinese school attacks and the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping trial. ABC News listed the coverage of Van der Sloot’s murder confession by Good Morning America among the most read stories from its website in 2010. CBS 42, the news affiliate in Birmingham near Holloway’s hometown, named the criminal charges filed against Van der Sloot in 2010 among the top ten stories of the year in Alabama. Radio Netherlands Worldwide identified him as one of the most talked about Dutch people of the year.

Media coverage at Miguel Castro Castro prison

Van der Sloot’s cell became the target of a media circus, with reporters vying to gain exclusive access and report about his prison surroundings. Since his incarceration, he has only consented to interviews to De Telegraaf, in which he admitted to extorting the Holloway family and said that he received a number of marriage proposals in his cell, including one from a woman who wanted to have his child. Van der Sloot reportedly receives fan mail from around the world, though mostly from women residing in the United States and the Netherlands. According to sources within the prison, Van der Sloot sought US$1 million in exchange for an on-camera interview.

The Office of Internal Affairs of the National Penitentiary Institute of Peru began administrative and disciplinary action on August 23, 2010, when Peruvian network América Televisión aired a picture of Van der Sloot with three other inmates that had been taken with official photographic equipment at Miguel Castro Castro prison. The photo included Van der Sloot casually posing with Colombian hitman Hugo Trujillo Ospina, accused of the contract killing of Peruvian entrepreneur Myriam Fefer, and American William Trickett Smith II, accused of killing and dismembering his Peruvian wife. Van der Sloot and Smith have been referred to by local media as "the foreigners accused of the most talked-about assassinations in our country."

On September 11, 2010, Beth Holloway and Peter R. De Vries traveled to Peru with a Dutch television crew to visit the prison. According to Van der Sloot’s attorney Maximo Alonso Altez Navarro, his client was taken to meet them "practically by force." Altez Navarro stated that the meeting with Holloway took "less than one minute." Holloway said that she told Van der Sloot that she had "no hate in her soul" for him and asked about her daughter’s disappearance, to which Van der Sloot responded by saying that he could not speak to her without his lawyer present and handing her his business card. According to Altez Navarro, Holloway was "snuck" into the prison without being identified by the Dutch media crew who she was with. A prison spokesperson stated that Holloway’s name was not found in the visitor registry. Holloway and the crew were removed from the prison, reportedly after a hidden camera was discovered by the guards. Representatives for Holloway and De Vries denied that a hidden camera was involved nor was anything seized. Miguel Castro Castro prison warden Alex Samamé Peña was suspended after video segments of the confrontation between Holloway’s mother and Van der Sloot later began airing on Dutch network SBS6.

In October 2010, América Televisión broadcast video of a transaction for marijuana within the prison that was conducted by a shirtless man who was addressed as "gringo Van der Sloot." Defense attorney Altez Navarro said that the situation was "staged" and asked the National Penitentiary Institute to investigate how it was leaked. Prison spokesperson Bruno Guzman said that Van der Sloot had been painting his cell "to improve his conditions" and that the incident was being investigated.

In November 2010, a forensic expert determined that a jawbone found on an Aruban beach was from a young woman. A part of the bone was sent to The Hague for testing by the Netherlands Forensic Institute against Natalee Holloway’s dental records. According to Altez Navarro, Van der Sloot began laughing when notified of the developments. Aruba Solicitor-General Taco Stein later announced that the bone was confirmed to be not from Holloway.