A man from the Netherlands connected to the 2005 disappearance in Aruba of an American teenager, Natalee Holloway, will be temporarily extradited to the United States from Peru to face extortion and wire fraud charges, the Peruvian authorities said on Wednesday.
The man, Joran van der Sloot, has been a suspect in the disappearance of Ms. Holloway, then 18, during her class trip to the Dutch island in 2005. He is in Peru serving a 28-year prison sentence in a separate case: the 2010 murder of Stephany Flores, a 21-year-old Peruvian student.
The office of Peru’s attorney general, Patricia Benavides, told CBS News in a statement on Wednesday that Mr. Van der Sloot would be temporarily handed over to the U.S. for prosecution in the Holloway case. He will return to Peru “immediately following the proceedings,” CBS quoted the office as saying.
The attorney general’s office could not immediately be reached for comment, and the Peruvian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
An attorney for Mr. van der Sloot, Maximo Altez, told The Associated Press that he would fight the decision.
This is a developing story.