Birmingham, Al (WIAT) A Dutch TV reporter who taped Joran van der Sloot confessing to dumping Natalee Holloway's body in the sea off Aruba was granted bail Saturday after being arrested in Australia on charges of trespassing for attempting to speak to another man he said was a murder suspect.
Television journalist Peter de Vries and colleague Chantal van Schuylenburgh were arrested Friday after reportedly visiting a Perth property a number of times despite being warned by police to stay away.
De Vries, 53, said they were trying to contact a suspect in the murder of a Dutch woman who died on holiday in Honduras in 2008.
The two refused to sign for bail on Friday and spent the night in jail.
Van Schuylenburgh, 43, pleaded guilty Friday to failing to comply with the move-on order and was fined 200 Australian dollars ($178) and charged AU$62.50 in court costs.
However, de Vries told a judge in Perth's Magistrates Court that he could not make a plea.
"It depends how you look at the facts," he said. "I had a reason for what I did and I want to explain."
The judge set bail on condition that de Vries not return to the property or contact its occupant, and then adjourned the case until Tuesday.
De Vries is the Netherlands' highest-profile crime reporter. He made headlines around the world and won an Emmy for a 2008 show about the disappearance of U.S. teenager Natalee Holloway in Aruba. It was based on hidden-camera interviews with Joran van der Sloot, the Dutch youth last seen with Holloway before her disappearance on May 30, 2005.
In a statement on his website, de Vries criticized the arrest in Australia as "the world turned upside down."
"It is unbelievable that the Australian police ... arrested and jailed us instead of being pleased that we have tracked down a fugitive murder suspect," he said.
De Vries said the 31-year-old Australian was questioned by police in Honduras after the death of Dutch woman Mariska Mast in August 2008.
De Vries said Interpol had issued a warrant for the man, who also has British citizenship, and that police had not known where the suspect was until his investigative team tracked him down.
Duty Inspector Dominic Wood of the Western Australian police told the Australian Associated Press that he was unaware of any request from Interpol or other police about a homicide inquiry in Honduras or the 31-year-old Australian man.
"That may well change ... something may be being organized as a result of the interest by these Dutch journalists," he said.
DeVries has pursued the Natalee Holloway case....and prime suspect Joran van der Sloot... for years.
Van der Sloot is currently in prison in Peru facing charges he murdered 21 year old Stephany Flores. The Peruvian student was found dead in van der Sloot's Lima hotel room....five years to the day after Natalee Holloway's disappearance while on a graduation trip to Aruba.
The Mountain Brook teen was last seen with Joran van der Sloot. Although questioned by Aruban authorities, he's never been charged in connection to Natalee's disappearance.
