The lawyer representing the Dutch suspect in the 2005 disappearance Natalee Holladay has challenged his extradition to U .S. for fraud charges. He calls it “abuse” of authority that violates the rights of his client.
In an interview, attorney Maximo Altez stated that neither he or Joran van der Sloot had been notified about the extradition to Alabama for charges related to a fraud scheme involving Holloway and family.
Altez plans to file an habeas corpus writ, which he says will allow van der Sloot to be given due process prior his scheduled extradition on Thursday.
Altez, who is Van der Sloot’s lawyer, said that he has “not accepted” the provisional passport issued to him for Monday.
Altez replied, “I’m not sure how they will extradite him.” “He is not willing to do so voluntarily.”
The extradition is linked to a federal complaint filed in Birmingham, Alabama in 2010, alleging van der Sloot had been behind a fraudulent scheme which promised to provide the location of Holloway’s remains.
Holloway vanished on Aruba in 2005 during a graduation trip for her high school. She has never been located. Van der Sloot, who was arrested for her disappearance, was released later and was never charged. A judge later declared Holloway dead.
Van der Sloot has been sentenced to 28 years in prison for the killing of Stephany Flores, a Peruvian student studying business.
Van der Sloot, in the alleged scam scheme, is accused of trying extort hundreds and thousands of dollars from Holloway’s family for supposedly the details of her death.
Holloway’s mom sent $25,000 into a Dutch account for van der Sloot, and an American attorney who would travel to Aruba to visit the grave van der Sloot claimed Holloway had been buried.
Federal prosecutors stated against An der Sloot, who knew that the details he gave were false. In an email he referred to the information as “worthless,” but he still kept the $25,000.
Van der Sloot faces one count each of wire fraud, and extortion.
Altez claimed that van der Sloot had spent $25,000 of the money on gambling.
He called van der Sloot a “sick” person and a compulsive gambling who “took the advantage of the circumstance” when Holloway’s mother sent him the money.
