Joran van der Sloot's legal troubles grew Wednesday after a federal grand jury in Alabama indicted the Dutchman on charges he tried to extort more than a quarter of a million dollars from Natalee Holloway's family.
U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance said Van der Sloot, 22, who is in a Peruvian prison after authorities charged him with the murder of a 21-year-old business student, faces one count of wire fraud and one count of extortion.
He allegedly solicited money from Holloway's mother in exchange for information about the teenager's death and whereabouts of her remains. Van der Sloot was twice arrested but never charged in the disappearance of Holloway, an Alabama high school student who never returned from a graduation trip in 2005.
Joran van der Sloot's request to retract his confession to last month's murder of Peruvian business student Stephany Flores has been termed "baseless" – and has been denied by a court in Lima, say reports.
The attorney for the Dutch murder suspect, 22, had claimed that his client's statement confessing to the brutal beating of Flores was made under duress and should be invalidated, as it allegedly infringed upon his constitutional rights. The lawyer said he would help police re-interview van der Sloot.
The attorney says he will appeal Friday's decision to let the confession stand.
On his own behalf, van der Sloot said from his cell at the maximum-security Miguel Castro Castro prison to the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, "I was very scared and confused during the interrogations and wanted to get away. In my blind panic, I signed everything but didn't even know what it said."
However, police say their questioning of van der Sloot took place in accordance with established standards, in the presence of a prosecutor and a government-appointed attorney.
While he awaits his trial – which is expected to begin in anywhere between three to 12 months, say experts – van der Sloot stands charged with first-degree murder, along with aggravated robbery for allegedly taking more than $10,000 in gambling money from Flores.
In addition, van der Sloot still remains a person of interest in the 2005 disappearance of American student Natalee Holloway in Aruba.
Joran van der Sloot has filed a complaint of misconduct against Peruvian police officials, claiming he was wrongfully arrested and not given a translator when he was questioned for the murder of Stephany Flores, according to local reports.
In the complaint, the Dutch national, 22, says his June 3 arrest in Chile was executed without a proper warrant. He also claims he was confused during the interrogation because authorities did not provide an official translator, El Comercio reports.
"All this with the intention of pressuring me to accuse me of homicide," he said, according to a document obtained by Peruvian news program 24 Hours.
Van der Sloot recently retracted his confession, telling a Dutch newspaper he was "very scared and confused during the interrogations."
During the prison cell interview, he claims he only admitted to killing Flores, a business student, because police intimidated him and promised he would be transferred back to the Netherlands.
According to police, Flores was murdered on May 30 – five years to the day U.S. teen Natalee Holloway disappeared in Aruba. Van der Sloot was arrested twice but never charged in that case.
After providing chilling details of Stephany Flores's final moments, Joran van der Sloot is now reportedly retracting his confession and claims he was tricked by investigators.
"I was very scared and confused during the interrogations and wanted to get away," he said during a prison cell interview with Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. "In my blind panic, I signed everything but didn't even know what it said."
The Dutchman, 22, said he only admitted to killing Flores May 30th – five years to the day Natalee Holloway disappeared in Aruba – because police intimidated him and promised he would be transferred back to the Netherlands if he confessed.
Meanwhile, his mother, Anita van der Sloot, broke her silence, granting her first interview in years to the same Dutch newspaper.
"He is not a monster," Anita tells De Telegraaf. "He's sick in the head but wanted no help."
In the interview, Anita also reveals that Joran was to be committed to a psychiatric hospital just two days before he fled for Peru, where he has been charged with Flores's murder. Anita says Joran had "nothing to do with the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in 2005." But, she adds, "Stephany, he may have killed."
Anita says she and her husband, who passed away of a heart attack in February, made a mistake by allowing a "traumatized" Joran the opportunity to study in the Netherlands following the Holloway case. "He already needed psychiatric help back then," she says. Since then, her son's life spiraled downward quickly.
Anita says Joran told many lies, struggled with an addiction to poker and experienced severe pychological stress following his father's death from a heart attack, for which he blamed himself. Though she stood by his side during his two arrests tied to Holloway's disappearance, she concludes: "I will not visit him in his cell ... I cannot embrace him ... I believed Joran, despite his many lies."
Joran van der Sloot has reportedly told Peruvian officials he wants to come clean about the location of the body of Alabama honor student Natalee Holloway, who went missing five years ago in Aruba.
The reason? He's afraid for his life inside the Peruvian prison where he's locked-up after being charged in the murder of business student Stephany Flores, 21.
"I don't want to be imprisoned in Peru," he told police, according to a local newspaper. "I am afraid I will be killed."
Van der Sloot, 22, is currently being held in isolation in the high-security Miguel Castro Castro prison in the San Juan de Lurigancho district of Lima while he awaits trial – and officials say he has requested security measures to guarantee his safety there, fearing other prisoners will take justice into their own hands.
"Convicts inside have committed serious crimes," criminal attorney Luis Lamas Puccio, who is not connected to the case, told People Magazine in Peru. "There is too much promiscuity, overcrowding and poor health conditions. I know Joran is isolated . . . This way he'll be safe not only from rape but also from being killed."
Inside 'Castro Castro'
The prison, which was built to hold 2,000 inmates, now houses about 2,300. But Leonardo Caparros, former director of the National Institute that oversees Peru's prison system, tells PEOPLE that van der Sloot is lucky to be assigned to Miguel Castro Castro prison because overcrowding isn't as horrendous there as it is in others in the South American country.
"Of course it's still a very tough jail because the people there – they all are well-known criminals," Caparros says. "You never send to Castro Castro a person who is going into a criminal situation for the first time. There is an exception, and that is murder."
Though van der Sloot is being kept separated from other prisoners, "isolation is relative because infrastructure is not ready and adapted to separate convicts," says Puccio, who also provided an example of how this isolation works: "They have to stay at the auditorium alone, and when that place has to be used, they are taken to a garden or an office. There isn't a proper isolation system like there is in the United States."
What Money Can Buy
If van der Sloot has access to outside money he might be able to buy himself protection from other inmates inside Castro Castro. "It's like a secret that everybody knows," Caparros says.
A U.S. Department of State report on conditions in Peru's prisons, released in March 2010, backs up Caparros's claim.
"Conditions were poor to extremely harsh in facilities for prisoners who lacked funds," the report states. "Overcrowding, poor sanitation, and inadequate nutrition and health care were serious problems. Inmates had intermittent access to running water, bathing facilities were inadequate, kitchen facilities were unhygienic, and prisoners slept in hallways and common areas for lack of cell space."
Whether or not van der Sloot has access to money, Caparros says, "I don't think that so many people will be able to sympathize with somebody who killed little girls. Criminals have codes, you know. . . . I guess many people in jail will not like that."
Joran Van der Sloot attacked Stephany Flores after she found out he was linked to the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, according to media reports.
The Peruvian newspaper La Republica said the Dutchman, 22, flew into a rage when Flores, 21, opened his laptop and saw material about the 2005 case of the Alabama teen.
Flores was found dead last Wednesday. Van der Sloot reportedly confessed to her murder on Monday.
According to the newspaper, Van der Sloot said in his confession: "I did not want to do it. The girl intruded into my private life. She had no right. I went to her, and I hit her. She was scared. We argued, and she tried to escape. I grabbed her by the neck and hit her."
If true, the reports would focus even more attention on Van der Sloot's possible involvement in Holloway's disappearance five years ago in Aruba. Van der Sloot was arrested and charged twice in the case but released both times.
Van der Sloot appeared to confess to the Holloway crime in 2008 on a secretly recorded video, allegedly telling a friend he had disposed of her body. He later said he had lied on the recording, which had been arranged by a Dutch crime reporter.
Joran van der Sloot's legal troubles grew Wednesday after a federal grand jury in Alabama indicted the Dutchman on charges he tried to extort more than a quarter of a million dollars from Natalee Holloway's family.
