Joran van der Sloot to be extradited to US
Joran van der Sloot is the primary suspect in the disappearance of Alabama student Natalee Holloway in 2005. Van der Sloot was indicted in 2010 on charges of extortion and wire fraud.
MOUNTAIN BROOK, Ala. - EXCLUSIVE - Despite brutally killing a young woman and being the prime suspect in the unsolved disappearance of another, he found love in prison.
But that appears to be over, according to his attorney. Joran van der Sloot, the 36-year-old suspect in the unsolved 2005 disappearance of Alabama high school student Natalee Holloway, is getting divorced.
He married Leidy Figueroa in a prison ceremony while serving a 28-year sentence for the brutal murder of Stephany Flores, a Peruvian business student whom he met at a casino and later beat to death in his hotel room.
Figueroa was seven months pregnant at the time of their wedding.
NATALEE HOLLOWAY CASE: JORAN VAN DER SLOOT'S LAWYER FEARS ADDITIONAL US CHARGES
File photo of Leidy Figueroa in a wedding dress. The Peruvian national married Joran van der Sloot who was convicted in the killing of fellow Peruvian, Stephany Flores. (Splash News / Shutterstock)
He told her he wanted to marry her all over again once his sentence was up, The Associated Press reported at the time.
But she is calling it quits with van der Sloot, who went on to face charges of trafficking drugs inside prison with the help of another girlfriend, his lawyer Maximo Altez told Fox News Digital.
Authorities in Peru on Tuesday announced that van der Sloot, who was indicted in a federal court in Alabama in 2010 on charges of extortion and wire fraud in a twisted plot targeting Holloway's mother, would be extradited to the United States to stand trial.
Natalee Hollway, center, went missing during a spring break trip in 2005 and was never found. (FBI)
The deal will temporarily place him in American custody, and after his trial, he'll be returned to Peru to finish his prison sentence. His term is up in 2038. After that, he would be sent to the U.S. again to serve a sentence if he is convicted.
NATALEE HOLLOWAY, SUSPECT JORAN VAN DER SLOOT: TIMELINE OF ALABAMA TEEN'S DEATH
As the last person seen with Holloway, van der Sloot has been the prime suspect in her disappearance and presumed death. Exactly five years after she vanished, van der Sloot killed Flores and fled to Chile. He was convicted two years later and sentenced to 28 years.
File picture dated Jan. 6, 2012, of Dutch national Joran Van der Sloot during his preliminary hearing in court in the Lurigancho prison in Lima. (ERNESTO BENAVIDES/AFP/GettyImages)
While serving his sentence he was accused of trafficking drugs in prison in a plot in which a different girlfriend was accused of smuggling contraband inside. He was convicted, and a judge tacked on seven years to his sentence.
Holloway was visiting Aruba on a trip to celebrate high school graduation with a large group of friends from Mountain Brook, Alabama, and vanished after she left a night club with van der Sloot and two of his pals, Satish and Deepak Kalpoe, on the night before she was supposed to fly home.
This file photo shows Leidy Figueroa in Lima, Peru on Sept. 18, 2014, when she was pregnant with Joran van der Sloot's child. (Splash News / Shutterstock)
Van der Sloot is not charged in Holloway's death, but is accused of trying to extort her mother for $250,000.
If the government of Peru had not agreed to extradite him now, he would have been sent to the U.S. at the end of his sentence in 2038, Altez said.
A shaman spits on a poster of Joran van der Sloot, right, outside San Pedro prison in Peru, Jan. 6, 2012. On the left is a poster of Stephany Flores, a 21-year-old business student who he met in a casino in May 2010 and beat to death in his hotel room the next morning. (AP Photo/Karel Navarro)
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Authorities in the South American country said they had agreed to the move in part because witnesses were starting to age.
Van der Sloot and the Kalpoes were arrested and released more than once in connection with Holloway's disappearance. She was ruled legally dead by an Alabama court in 2012.
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