BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) - The slow process of the Peruvian justice system is grinding one step closer to keeping Joran van der Sloot behind bars. The Dutchman has a preliminary hearing scheduled in Lima Monday on charges he killed 21-year-old student Stephany Flores.
Flores' corpse was found in van der Sloot's Lima hotel room in May of last year....five years to the day of Natalee Holloway's disappearance on a graduation trip to Aruba. The Mountain Brook teen was last seen leaving a bar with van der Sloot and two friends.
After fleeing to neighboring Chile where he was arrested and returned to Peru, van der Sloot told investigators he killed Flores after she found material about Natalee on his laptop. He appealed that confession claiming it was coerced but Peruvian courts upheld its validity.
Van der Sloot's defense now is that he killed Flores in a fit of temporary insanity. Peruvian prosecutors say the motive was robbery and they're seeking a 30-year prison term.
American authorities here in Alabama are waiting their crack at van der Sloot. A Birmingham grand jury indicted him on extortion and wire fraud charges claiming he promised the Holloway family information about Natalee's fate, took their money, but never provided the information.
Any efforts to extradite van der Sloot to Alabama are stuck in line behind the Peruvian murder charges.