Joran Van der Sloot was given a 28 year prison sentence on Friday, January 13, 2012 by a 3 judge panel in Lima, Peru for the premeditated murder and robbery of 21-year-old Stephany Flores who he hit in the face with his elbow and then suffocated to death, holding his shirt over her nose and mouth, in room 309 of the Hotel Tac, S.A.C. located in the Miraflores District of Lima on May 30, 2010, as reported on Friday, January 13 by Fox News, ABC News, CNN, the Daily Mail, The Christian Science Monitor, and other news sources.
With time already served since his arrest and extradition from Chile on June 4, 2010, where the 24-year-old Dutchman fled after killing the woman, his release date has been set for June 10, 2038, when Van der Sloot will be 50-years-old.
However, with time off for good behavior, under Peruvian law the convicted killer could cut his sentence in half, and only be in his late thirties when he gets out of jail.
In addition to the jail time, Van der Sloot was ordered by the court to pay the equivalent of $75,000 in restitution to the family of his victim.
To the media and other courtroom observes, the prisoner, who stood during most of the procedure, seemed upset and ill at ease, drinking three glasses of water and perspiring through the green T-shirt he was wearing, as seen in the attached video clip and slide show which accompany this report.
Peruvian businessman Ricardo Flores, whose daughter Van der Sloot murdered, told reporters that the killer has been receiving preferential treatment while locked up at the Lurigancho prison in Lima.
He claims that Van der Sloot has been segregated from the general prison population because he is a foreigner, and has been allowed access to a television set and video gaming console in his cell. Prison officials have denied Mr. Flores' allegations.
Still, the grieving and angry father is not satisfied, saying to reporters, "A jail isn't a 5-star hotel. Let's hope the authorities take that into account and not just in our case. Since the first day we've been complaining about the excessive privileges."
Whatever Mr. Van der Sloot's level of comfort during his confinement in Peru, he is still facing criminal charges in both Thailand and the United States.
Thailand is pursuing criminal charges against him for his apparent sex trafficking of Thai women in Bangkok, allegedly earning $13,000 for each woman that he sold into prostitution in the Netherlands.
On June 3, 2010, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama charged Van der Sloot with extortion and wire fraud based on a sting operation in which the Dutchman shook down the mother of Natalee Holloway, Beth Twitty, for $25,000 in exchange for what turned out to be false information as to where the young woman was buried.
U.S. Attorney Joyce W. Vance issued an arrest warrant through Interpol to have Van der Sloot prosecuted in the United States.
He was also later formally indicted on June 30, 2010 by a federal grand jury on these same two charges of extortion and wire fraud, and ordered to return any monies paid to him.
CNN and other media sources are reporting that the United States intends to formally pursue extradition proceedings against Van der Sloot on these charges, most likely at the conclusion of his Peruvian incarceration.
The chief prosecutor on Aruba, Taco Stein, has also kept the Natalee Holloway investigation open, although there is no indication of any progress being made in that case.
Under Dutch law, the average sentence for a murder conviction is 5-1/2 years. In the absence of a corpse or any supporting forensic evidence, even such a light sentence would be hard to achieve.
On Thursday, January 12, 2012, about six and a half years after Ms. Holloway disappeared, Alabama Probate Judge Alan King signed an order declaring the missing woman legally dead. That finding may bring some closure to Dave Holloway and Beth Twitty, the teen's parents, who still are dealing with the endless grief of not being able to bury their daughter.
For both the Holloway and the Flores family, the loss of their daughters are a life sentence of sorrow.
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