Van der Sloot taken to jail in Peru on murder charges

June 12, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

LIMA, Peru

Angry Peruvian onlookers shouted “Disgrace” and “Murderer” at Joran van der Sloot on Friday after a judge ordered him jailed on first-degree murder and robbery charges in the violent killing of a 21-year-old Lima woman.

Prosecutors said the Dutchman, who was taken to a segregated block of an eastern Lima prison, acted with “ferocity and great cruelty” in killing business student Stephany Flores in his hotel room after they met playing poker.

Van der Sloot remains the lone suspect in the 2005 disappearance of U.S. teen Natalee Holloway on the Caribbean resort island of Aruba, and Peru’s criminal police chief says the defendant told interrogators he knows where her body is.

Aruba’s attorney general, Taco Stein, told The Associated Press on Friday he is skeptical van der Sloot was telling the truth about Holloway’s body. He said Aruban officials will decide whether to send investigators to Peru to question him once they learn exactly what he is offering.

Lima Superior Court Judge Juan Buendia issued a detention order before dawn for van der Sloot on the murder charge. He was first taken with other prisoners in an armored truck to Lima’s judicial palace, then alone to the maximum-security Castro Castro prison.