Vlad D Impeller
Commander
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2005
- Messages
- 2,644
ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) Three young men detained in the disappearance of an Alabama teenager have been charged with murder since their arrest more than three weeks ago, Aruba's chief prosecutor told The Associated Press on Friday. <br /> <br /> The three young men were the last people believed to have seen Natalee the night she disappeared. <br />Family handout <br /><br />The charges were not announced at the time to protect the feelings of the family of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway, said Attorney General Karin Janssen. <br /><br />"At the time, we didn't want to upset the (Holloway) family talking about murder while they searched," Janssen said. <br /><br />Janssen, who has said several times in the past three weeks that no one was charged in the case, said they also kept the information quiet in order not to compromise their investigation. Authorities have said they have no physical evidence suggesting Holloway is dead. <br /><br />Janssen said 17-year-old Joran van der Sloot, 17, and two Surinamese brothers who are his friends have been charged since their arrest 10 days after Holloway disappeared on May 30. <br /><br />Also Friday, Aruba's government defended its handling of the investigation, saying many of the criticisms arose from misunderstandings of the Dutch legal system used on the Caribbean island. <br /><br />Police have been criticized for letting more than a week go by without detaining the three young men last seen with Holloway and for waiting 16 days after she went missing before searching van der Sloot's home. <br /><br />Ruben Trapenberg, spokesman for Prime Minister Nelson Oduber, said the government has put 21 detectives on the case. <br /><br />Trapenberg also mentioned the 70 Dutch Marines on the island who helped in initial searches and were called back Thursday to comb the island again. <br /><br />"They do not bungle cases," Trapenberg told The Associated Press. "Aruban police and prosecutors are professional forces that have been successful." <br /><br /><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />Prosecutors have an 89% conviction rate on the Dutch Caribbean island, he said. Violent crime is rare in the tourist haven. <br /><br />Asked why two of three suspects were transported together, apparently giving them the opportunity to compare or arrange their stories, Trapenberg said that was done to secretly monitor what they might tell each other. <br /><br />Late Thursday, CNN captured images of van der Sloot, and Deepak Kalpoe handcuffed together, being put in a car to leave San Nicolas prison. It wasn't clear where they were being taken. <br /><br />The Kalpoe brothers and van der Sloot were the last ones seen with Holloway the night she disappeared. Police questioned the three that same day but did not detain them until June 9. Two other people, including van der Sloot's father, Paul, an island judicial official, were detained and released. <br /><br />"One of the techniques is that after hearing separate stories and getting nowhere, prosecutors will have suspects confront each other," said Trapenberg. "The U.S. system might be different, but this technique has worked in the past here." <br /><br />Trapenberg also said that police initially did not have any cause to hold the young men: "If they had arrested them immediately, they would never have collected evidence." <br /><br />Natalee's mother, Beth Holloway Twitty, has repeatedly criticized investigators, saying that if she did not get answers soon she would believe they were protecting someone probably Joran van der Sloot because of his father's position. <br /><br />"Prosecutors couldn't even attempt a cover-up because they know better than anyone that this case is under a microscope," Trapenberg said.
