Exclusive photos show injuries Joran van der Sloot sustained in prison, lawyer claims killer 'fears for his life'

Exclusive photos of Joran van der Sloot’s injuries

Fox News Latino obtained never-before-seen photos of the injuries convicted killer Joran van der Sloot received while in prison.

Fox News Latino has obtained exclusive photos of the injuries Joran van der Sloot, the prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of U.S. teen Natalee Holloway, sustained inside a Peruvian prison.

According to his lawyer, van der Sloot was attacked twice in the last two weeks inside the prison. His last cut, in the kidney area, required 15 stitches and was described by a prison doctor as “profound,” according to prison document obtained by Fox News Latino. He did not require surgery, and the injuries are far less severe than previous reports claiming he was in serious condition.

The 27-year-old Dutch national, who is serving a 28-year prison sentence for the murder of a Peruvian woman, is recovering in the infirmary of one of Peru’s most notorious – and dangerous – prisons. Maximo Altez Navarro, van der Sloot’s lawyer, and the inmate’s wife, who also spoke to Fox News Latino, are demanding that he be moved to Lima or, at the very least, a hospital where he can receive appropriate care.

The top authority in the Peruvian prisons, or INPE, Jose Luis Perez Guadalupe, has disregarded van der Sloot’s claims that he was injured in prison – saying van der Sloot harmed himself to play the victim.

The convicted killer was serving time for the murder of Stephanie Flores, when he was suddenly transferred to the Challapalca Prison in August of this year. Prison authorities said he had threatened to kill one of the guards.

Altez said his client is in real danger and was stabbed by fellow inmates to draw the attention of the press in the hopes of having the infamous prison closed for good.

Challapalca, which sits at an altitude of 15,737 feet in a remote area of southern Peru, is a desolated place where temperatures can plunge to minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit at night.

“It’s where they take inmates to torture them,” Altez said.

Van der Sloot’s wife, Leidy Figueroa, said she went to visit van der Sloot in prison on Sunday, Nov. 2 and said she panicked when she saw his injuries.

“He was losing a lot of blood,” she said, adding that van der Sloot knew his attackers and is certain the inmates want him killed in order to shut down the prison. “That’s what Joran told me,” she said. “We want to bring him down [to Lima], they want to kill him.”

According to his lawyer, van der Sloot is the only foreigner and by far the most notorious inmate in Challapalca, which holds around 350 of the “worst criminals” in the country.

But prison officials in Lima have repeatedly denied claims by Figueroa that van der Sloot is being mistreated, and say she’s outright lying.

After Sunday’s alleged attack, Figueroa returned to the prison with a judge, two police officers and a photographer and a petition to argue his life is at risk and should be moved to Lima immediately.

At the time of this posting, the judge had not yet rule on the motion.

Figueroa, 25, married the convicted murderer on July of this year while pregnant of their now 7-weeks-old daughter. They met in prison in 2011 and Figueroa swears he is a changed man. “God has opened the door to his heart. All is paid in this life and he is paying now; God has a mission for him,” she added.

When inquired about Natalee Holloway, whose body was never found and whose case remains open, she just said: “We don’t speak of the past, we only speak of the present and the future.”

According to the Peruvian criminal code, van der Sloot is eligible for parole in four years, after having served almost five of the nine years that make up one-third of his sentence.