Joran Van der Sloot to Be Moved to Miguel Castro Castro Maximum Security Prison
Posted on Sun Jun 06, 2010 at 09:12:57 AM EST
Tags: Joran Van der Sloot (all tags)
Update: Joran will be held at the Miguel Castro Castro prison for the duration of the investigation phase. The prison was the subject of a huge lawsuit in 2006 for violation of prisoners' rights. (see end of this post for more.)
Update: Report from Peru: Joran is refusing to answer questions without a lawyer. Smart move, if true. He also reportedly asked for a non-Dutch attorney and said he was not arrested in Chile but surrendered, knowing he was being sought. Maybe that's why he wasn't handcuffed.
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Original post: Netherlands Offers Defense Attorney to Joran Van der Sloot
Peru may come to regret the gratuitous perp walk of Joran Van der Sloot. A few days ago, the Netherlands said it would not provide a lawyer for Joran Van der Sloot. Today, that's changed.
[More, with updates below]
The Dutch Consulate is now involved in the case and has volunteered a defense attorney for van der Sloot, according to Carlos Neyra, a spokesman for the Peruvian Investigative Police.
...The Dutch Consulate has told Peruvian authorities that it is not comfortable with the way van der Sloot has been presented to the media, Neyra said. The Peruvian Minister of the Interior is asking authorities not to talk about the case without his authorization.
The continually changing and contradictory media reports and statements by officials and family members in this case, make it difficult to form any kind of cohesive theory. [More...]
So many questions. First, did Joran meet Stephany before Sunday night? Elton Garcia, who was gambling with them Sunday night, knew Joran and was staying at the same hotel as Joran, and had met her before and gambled with her before. Did she also know Joran? The police have taken Elton's statement, why do they believe what he told them? What did Stephany do with the money she won playing with Elton two weeks before? How much of a gambler was she? He says "they" gambled with her four times in May. Was she in debt to a loan shark?
In the hotel video, she's not carrying a purse or anything in her hands, so where were the casino winnings? What happened to the $1,000. her father gave her for a laptop? Did she gamble and lose it? Why did she go back to Joran's room, was she afraid to go home having lost her money or pawned her jewelry? Did Joran offer to loan her some money he had back at the room? If she always wears her necklace and jewelry, why isn't she wearing any in the hotel pictures?
She drove from the casino to the hotel in her vehicle. So at 5 a.m., she wasn't drugged.
The baseball bat has morphed into a tennis raquet and the medical examiner says she may have hit her head on the bed frame which caused her to hemorrhage. Was it an accident and he panicked and left? Her brother didn't see her until 72 hours later, by which time of course the body, not having been embalmed or frozen, was grossly distended, leaking gases and decomposed.
What happened to the second cup of coffee? Why didn't they show the video pictures of him leaving to get coffee or returning with the coffee so we could see what shirt he was wearing? When and where were these bloody clothes found that reportedly were found with Joran? He wouldn't be stupid enough to take bloody clothes with him knowing he's leaving the country. He would have left them in the room or dumped them after leaving the hotel.
Why didn't he ask for his passport when leaving the hotel, drive her car to the airport and hop a plane back to Aruba or the Netherlands? Especially if he thought he had a day or so before they found the body? Where did he leave her car? What did they find in it?
Why didn't he try to cover-up the body, move it into the closet or a bathtub? Why didn't they scrape under her nails for DNA before they buried her?
Joran had his laptop with him when he was arrested. What's on it? Did he e-mail anyone during the two days after he left the hotel in a panicked state or make any admissions? Did he check airfares or travel routes? Did he search the internet for ways to explain or disguise a murder?
I'm sure I'll think of more questions, this is just the beginning, please feel free to add to the list.
Update: Elton Garcia was playing poker the night of June 3. He was eliminated at 1:48 a.m. on June 4.
Update: What the hotel employee Abad Esmeralda who found the body reportedly told the police:
"I went knocking on the door of Room 309, insisted several times and did not respond, in that act I heard the radio or the TV was turned on at high volume because they listened to outside the room," he said."I thought that Mr. Joran was resting and I left ... back, I opened the back door with the key, walked three meters and found that the room light was turned on, just as the regular TV volume. There a pair of canvas sneakers, was completely unmade bed, they had clothes on the floor, "explained the woman.
Finally, he said "turn right and saw that there was one person on the floor, I was scared at that moment, I thought it was the citizens Netherlands and afraid I got closer and saw that he had long hair. When in doubt, and I approached I realized that it was a woman who was dead, had bleeding in the nose, wearing a dark polo red panties, the side was covered with a white garment. "
[Added: I think the Google translation is bad and she probably said when she went back to open the door with a key, not there was a back door to the room.]
Update: Back to the update at the top, in which Joran says he wants a lawyer and surrendered in Chile. If convicted of murder, the sentence may depend on the motive:
[If robbery was the motive] the Dutchman could be sentenced to life imprisonment for the crime of aggravated robbery with death. If you are sentenced for aggravated homicide, we expect 30 years in prison, but with the possibility of getting out in six or seven years for the benefits.
Update: On Miguel Castro-Castro Prison and the 2006 lawsuit:
Approximately 135 female prison inmates (along with about 450 male inmates) were subjected to violent attacks by guards and other state agents over the course of three days at the Castro-Castro maximum security prison. Some female inmates were humiliated, stripped-down and subjected to further physical and psychological abuse. Many inmates were held in solitary confinement, were denied medical care, and were kept from communicating with their families or their attorneys.
The Court found Peru to have violated Articles 4, 5(1), 5(2), 8(1) and 25 of the American Convention on Human Rights, Articles 1, 6 and 8 of the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture, and Article 7(b) of the Inter-American Convention to Prevent, Punish and Eradicate Violence against Women.
The Court ordered Peru to investigate and punish those responsible for these violations, to return the bodies of any inmates killed to their next of kin, to publicly acknowledge and apologize for these violations, to provide at no cost medical and psychological treatment to the victimized inmates and next of kin, and to pay reparations to the victims or their next of kin.
Here's the full report on the prison violence and abuse, it's disgusting.
That was all in the prior regime, but the violence continues. In January, 2010, the prison warden was murdered (after being on the job one day.)
Peruvian President Alan Garcia also expressed his regrets for Vasquez’s death, and did not hesitate to call it a reprisal for his work in imposing discipline on the Miguel Castro Castro prison, the jail that houses the country’s most dangerous convicts, who are doing time for common crimes, terrorism and drug trafficking.
They seem to have treated Joran pretty well up until this point, and they know the whole world is watching. I presume they are smart enough to put him in solitary for his protection.
Final update: Here is the video of him being interrogated on arrival in Peru, counting his money and examining his laptop.
He sure doesn't seem nervous. Here are the still photos showing Joran's possessions.
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