Dutch murder suspect suing Chile
2011-11-28 09:28
Lima - Dutch national Joran Van der Sloot - set to go on trial next year for the murder of a young Peruvian woman - has demanded Chile pay him $10m for violating his rights by extraditing him to Peru.
Van der Sloot - who also remains the lead suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, a US tourist who was 18 when she went missing in Aruba in 2005 - has filed his claim with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
His complaint, made public on Sunday on the Panamerica Television channel, alleges that he was "deprived of his right to counsel" and was forbidden by Chilean police to call his family or contact an attorney.
The complaint, currently under review by the commission, also names former Peruvian president Alan Garcia and former interior minister Octavio Salazar, claiming that the pair pressured Chile to agree to the extradition.
Fled Peru to Chile
The trial of Van der Sloot for the murder last year of 21-year-old Stephany Flores is due to begin in a Peruvian court on January 6.
In the Peru case, he had initially pleaded guilty, but then claimed that his confession was coerced. He then said he killed Flores under extreme emotional anger after she accessed files about Holloway on his computer.
Flores was killed on the same day - May 30 - of Holloway's disappearance five years earlier in Aruba. Flores was found dead in a Lima hotel.
Van der Sloot fled Peru to Chile, but was arrested and sent back to face trial.
Prosecutors in Lima are seeking to send Van der Sloot to prison for 30 years in the Flores case, in addition to a civil fine of about $75 000.
Van der Sloot was twice arrested in the Holloway case and spent three months in jail but was never charged. Holloway's body has never been found.
- SAPA
