Maybe Justice Will Be Served00:26 Nov 22 2007
Times Read: 697
(CNN) -- Authorities have re-arrested three men in connection with the disappearance of an Alabama teenager in Aruba in 2005, based on new evidence in the case, prosecutors announced Wednesday
Brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe were arrested in Aruba at the same time authorities in the Netherlands picked up Joran Van der Sloot at the request of the Aruban government, the statement said. Van der Sloot is attending school in Holland.
The three had previously been arrested in 2005, Aruban prosecutors noted in a statement, but a court released them, citing insufficient evidence.
They are now charged with "involvement in the voluntary manslaughter of Natalee Holloway or causing serious bodily harm to Natalee Holloway, resulting in her death," the statement said.
Van der Sloot, now 20, and the Kalpoes, now ages 24 and 21, were the last people seen with Holloway, 18, as she left Carlos n' Charlie's nightclub in Oranjestad, Aruba, about 1:30 a.m. on May 30, 2005. All three men have maintained their innocence in her disappearance.
No information was immediately available about what the new evidence was that led to the arrests.
Aruban prosecutors said a team of detectives from the Netherlands has been reviewing the Holloway case at the request of authorities in Aruba, and had been on the island as late as last month to complete the investigation.
The Kalpoe brothers were being interrogated by Aruban police Wednesday, Aruba prosecutor Dop Kruimel told CNN. They will appear before a judge Friday for a preliminary arrest hearing, in which the judge determines whether the arrest was credible, she said.
The judge can then authorize their being detained for eight more days, meaning police have that much tim
The judge can then authorize their being detained for eight more days, meaning police have that much time to produce evidence. The suspects then go before a judge again, she said.
Van der Sloot was arrested in Arnhem, the Netherlands, by Dutch police, Kruimel said. Aruban authorities have asked for him to be extradited to Aruba within eight days.
Because they were not familiar with the case, Dutch police were not questioning Van der Sloot, she said. He will be questioned when he is brought back to Aruba, she said. However, he will appear before a judge Thursday in Arnhem.
When CNN called the Kalpoe household, the person who answered the phone hung up.
Earlier, Van der Sloot's attorney in the U.S., Joe Tacopina, confirmed his client's arrest to CNN. However, Van der Sloot's mother, Anita Van der Sloot, told CNN her son had not been arrested, but had only reported to a police station in the Netherlands for questioning Wednesday after receiving a letter asking him to do so.
"He didn't get arrested at all," said Anita Van der Sloot, who said she had spoken to her son briefly from her home in Aruba. She said a Dutch attorney was with him, and she expected him to appear before a judge and be released Thursday.
Holloway was visiting Aruba with a group of about 100 classmates celebrating their graduation from Mountain Brook High School in suburban Birmingham, Alabama, when she went to Carlos n' Charlie's that night in 2005.
The group had planned to leave for home the following day, and Holloway's packed bags and passport were found in her hotel room after she failed to show up for her flight.
Her disappearance triggered an exhaustive search and investigation and a media sensation in the United States, Aruba, the Netherlands and beyond, but Holloway has never been found.
The governors of three Southern states -- Alabama, Arkansas and Georgia -- threw their weight behind a boycott of Aruba tourism to protest the lack of progress in the case. While there was indeed a dip in Aruba tourism, those on the island said last year they expected to recover.
Aruban authorities have been criticized for their handling of the case. At least 10 men, including Van der Sloot and the Kalpoes, have been arrested and identified as suspects either in Holloway's disappearance or in an alleged cover-up. All were questioned and released.
Holloway's mother, Beth Holloway, has spoken frankly about the anguish she has suffered following her daughter's disappearance and the roller-coaster emotions she experiences as a result of false leads and arrests.
"We just get our hopes up, another arrest, and then he's released, and we still have no answers, you know. It's just getting more and more difficult," she told CNN last year.
As she pushed for answers, Beth Holloway became a fixture at Aruban police headquarters and on television crime shows, criticizing the investigation and what has been characterized in the media as the Aruban "catch-and-release" system of justice.
Legal experts, however, have said differences in the U.S. and Aruban systems should be taken into account. Aruba's criminal justice system is based on Dutch law and a descendant of the Napoleonic code. In Aruba, authorities' reasonable suspicion that someone knows about or is involved in a crime is enough to make an arrest, while magistrates investigate and judges determine a suspect's guilt or innocence. There are no jury trials.
Aruban authorities, meanwhile, have suggested that Holloway may have overdosed on drugs or died of alcohol poisoning.
Beth Holloway and Natalee Holloway's father, Dave Holloway, filed a lawsuit last year against Van der Sloot and his father, Aruban judge Paulus Van der Sloot, in the Supreme Court of the State of New York. The Van der Sloots were served with the suit while on a trip to New York.
However, a judge in August 2006 dismissed the suit, saying New York was an inconvenient forum in which to consider it. It was unclear whether Holloway's parents have pursued legal action elsewhere.
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I am hoping for Natalee's family that justice will finally be served and they can have some closure. I am sure they would like to know what happened to their loved one.
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