BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Joran van der Sloot, the prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway, pleaded not guilty Friday to federal charges that he tried to extort money from the teen’s mother in exchange for revealing the location of her body. .
Van der Sloot, 35, was extradited to the United States on Thursday from Peru, where he is serving a 28-year prison sentence after confessing to killing a Peruvian woman.
He was arraigned in Birmingham, not far from the suburb where Holloway grew up, in his first court appearance in the case.
Natalee’s mother, Beth Holloway, watched the court proceedings from the third row of the courtroom. She glanced at Van der Sloot from time to time, but she did not show any obvious emotion.
“For 18 years, I have lived with the excruciating pain of losing Natalee,” she said in a statement Thursday.
“Each day has been filled with unanswered questions and a yearning for justice that has eluded us every time. But today… I am hopeful that a small semblance of justice will finally come true.”
Then, she hugged friends who were with her, along with Natalee’s father and brother. She declined to comment to reporters outside the courthouse.
Joran van der Sloot, once a suspect in connection with the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, faces extradition to the United States on fraud charges.
Shackled and wearing jeans and a white T-shirt, Van der Sloot refused to use a Dutch interpreter offered to him at Friday’s arraignment. He sat next to his public defender, Kevin Butler, who pleaded not guilty on his behalf.
Van der Sloot is accused of extortion and wire fraud, the only charges that linked the Dutchman to Holloway’s disappearance on the Caribbean island of Aruba.
Natalee Holloway, 18, was on a high school graduation trip with classmates in Aruba when she went missing in 2005.
She was last seen leaving a bar with Van der Sloot, who was a student at an international school on the island.
He was identified as the main suspect and detained weeks later for questioning, along with two Surinamese brothers, but no charges were filed in the case.
A judge pronounced Holloway dead, but her body was never found.
