Why it matters: He faces charges in the U.S.
Mr. van der Sloot was being extradited to face federal charges of wire fraud and extortion in Alabama related to Ms. Holloway’s disappearance. Prosecutors say he tried to demand a $250,000 payment from Ms. Holloway’s mother, Beth Holloway, claiming to have knowledge of the missing girl’s remains. He received $25,000 from Beth Holloway after providing false information, according to prosecutors. The United States has not charged Mr. van der Sloot with Ms. Holloway’s death or disappearance.
The Peruvian authorities announced last month that they would allow Mr. van der Sloot to be temporarily extradited to the United States. This week, he tried to appeal the extradition, after saying he wouldn’t.
Maximo Altez, Mr. van der Sloot’s lawyer, said his client, who is a citizen of the Netherlands, had changed his mind after meeting with Dutch diplomats in Peru, The Associated Press reported.
The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to comment on the specifics of the case and did not confirm whether diplomats in Peru had visited Mr. van der Sloot.
“The Netherlands can’t get involved in the local due process in another country,” Casper Soetekouw, a spokesman, said. But he added that Dutch citizens in foreign detention could receive help from local diplomats. “That includes visiting a prisoner,” he said.
Mr. van der Sloot is serving a sentence for the murder of Stephany Flores, 21, a Peruvian student. He had met Ms. Flores at a casino, where he was attending a poker tournament, and later murdered her in a hotel room in Lima, in 2010. Mr. van der Sloot pleaded guilty in 2012. Judges in Peru sentenced him to 28 years in prison.
Background: A long-running unsolved mystery.
Ms. Holloway was 18 when she disappeared after a night out on May 30, 2005, during a trip to Aruba with her Alabama high school class. She has never been found, but a judge declared Ms. Holloway legally dead in 2012. The unsolved case has generated years of public interest in the United States, including news coverage as well as true-crime books and feature films.
Mr. van der Sloot never admitted to killing Ms. Holloway. But in 2008, the Dutch crime reporter Peter R. de Vries organized a sting operation for his television show in which he tried to solve the case with hidden cameras.
In the episode, Mr. van der Sloot can be seen in the passenger seat of a car with an informant, skirting a confession but heavily implying knowledge of what happened to Ms. Holloway.
The informant asked Mr. van der Sloot if he thought that anyone would ever find Ms. Holloway.
“No,” Mr. van der Sloot answered. “Never to be found.”
