RSSAppeals in the Disappearance of a Natalee Holloway
It appears that some of the appeal hearings were rather brief. Please tell me that the Prosecutor’s Office has some type of evidence and is not bluffing again.
Aruban Prosecutors Seek to Return Two Brothers to Jail in Case of Missing Alabama Teen
ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) – A judge heard competing appeals in the disappearance of a missing Alabama teenager Tuesday as a defense lawyer sought to have a 17-year-old from Aruba released in the case and prosecutors asked for the re-arrest of two brothers from Surinam.
The hearings were closed and the judge was expected to confer with two colleagues before issuing a ruling on Thursday.
The first hearing was an appeal of a judge’s ruling earlier this month that there was insufficient evidence to hold the brothers in Holloway’s disappearance. Satish Kalpoe, 18, and Deepak, 21, had been in custody since June 9, when they were arrested along with 17-year-old Joran van der Sloot. They were released on July 4.
The Kalpoe brothers left court Monday with their lawyers after brief hearings. Van der Sloot left the courthouse – handcuffed and hiding his face from the news media – in the custody of Aruban authorities.
David Kock, the lawyer for Satish Kalpoe, said he was confident the younger brother would remain free.
“There’s nothing new against my client,” Kock told reporters outside the courthouse. “I’m speculating but perhaps the prosecution wants to appeal for PR reasons.”
Kock said prosecutors informed him Monday that they had new evidence in the case that included online chatroom conversations between Deepak Kalpoe and van der Sloot.
But Ruud Offringa, the lawyer for the older brother, told reporters that the chatroom conversations were not new evidence and had previously presented to a judge.
In other news in Aruba, Volunteer Group May Quit Aruba Search
Six divers and nine land searchers have scoured Aruba’s entire northern coast and parts of the southern and western shores but have found no trace of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway, Joe Houston, of the Dickinson, Texas-based volunteer group Texas EquuSearch, said on Monday.
“We have searched a significant part of the areas we picked out. The areas that are left are not a high priority,” Houston said, describing the unsearched areas as remote places where it would be hard to hide a body.
The team will decide on Tuesday whether to give up the search, Houston said, adding that three divers from Florida State University’s underwater crime scene investigation department are planning to leave on Wednesday.
“We’ve pushed our departure back twice since we began the search. If we find any new leads worth pursuing, we’ll postpone it again,” Houston said.
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