Joran van der Sloot is anticipated to enter a guilty plea in connection with an extortion scheme related to Natalee Holloway’s disappearance. As part of the agreement, the family’s lawyer has indicated that van der Sloot will be obliged to provide information regarding the circumstances of the Alabama teen’s death.
“It [the plea agreement] was conditioned upon Mr. van der Sloot revealing details of how Natalee died and how her body was disposed of,” family lawyer John Q. Kelly told NBC News on Sunday.
Neither a lawyer for the van der Sloot nor federal prosecutors could immediately be reached for comment Monday.
Holloway disappeared on vacation in Aruba with classmates celebrating their high school graduation in 2005, and an Alabama probate court declared her dead in 2012.
Joran van der Sloot, a Dutch national, has been a longstanding suspect in the presumed killing of Natalee Holloway. In 2010, a federal grand jury indicted him on two counts of wire fraud and extortion.
In June, he was extradited to the United States to face charges related to his alleged demand of $250,000 from Holloway’s family in exchange for providing information about her disappearance.
Court records showed he was scheduled for a plea and sentencing hearing Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco in Birmingham, Alabama. But it was suddenly rescheduled, which most likely means he and the government have reached a deal to avoid trial. It’s not clear what charges he would plead to.
Van der Sloot was already in custody in Peru after he was convicted of killing a Peruvian college student, Stephany Flores, in 2010.
