Natalee Holloway Morning Update, June 20th, 2005

Very little happened over night that was reported. Joran Van der Sloots father was questioned for two hours, and then sent home.

This is a refresher for those who do not know Dutch and Aruban law. Their system is much different than that in the United States. A prisoner is guilty until proven innocent. However, if the prosecution puts too much information out to the public over the case, the judge has the right to throw out the charges since the prosecution has been seen to unfairly treat the prisoner.

So as the prosecutors in the United States tend to release all of the information to the public that it can, the opposite is true in Aruba. Thus, many things positively may be happening in Aruba that we do not know about. If they were released to the public, the suspects could walk free. So their system requires a level of patience that Americans have been conditioned not to have.

Please keep this in mind as the case progresses.

Fox News

Aruban police on Sunday questioned the father of a Dutch teenager held in the disappearance of an Alabama teenager, hoping the island justice official may know something to help solve the mystery of what happened to her, an official said.

Paul van der Sloot, a judge-in-training on the island, was questioned for two hours Sunday afternoon after five hours Saturday night, said Police Superintendent Jan van der Straaten.

Joran van der Sloot , 17, was one of the people last seen with Natalee Holloway the night she disappeared. Three other men have been detained, but no one has been charged.

Van der Straaten said the father was asked to come back Sunday because officials were not able to finish the interrogation on Saturday, but declined to give more details.

“He was questioned as a witness, no more or no less,” van der Straaten told The Associated Press.

The attorney general’s spokeswoman, Mariaine Croes, said witnesses are questioned when prosecutors believe they may be able to add something to the case.

CNN

Police Commissioner Jan Van Der Straten said police questioned Judge Paul Van Der Sloot while his wife, Anita, visited their son, 17-year-old Joran, who is being held in connection with the case.

Van Der Straten dismissed as “completely false” media reports that police also had interrogated the judge’s wife.

Joran Van Der Sloot is one of three people last reported seen with Holloway before she disappeared in the early hours of May 30.

The judge also was questioned Saturday and remained in the police station for about five hours. Asked Saturday whether the father was being interviewed as a suspect or a witness, a source close to the investigation said “the latter.”

Also jailed in the case are brothers Deepak Kalpoe, 21, and Satish Kalpoe, 18, and a man identified by a family member as Steve Croes, a 26-year-old disc jockey for a popular party boat. He was arrested Friday. (Full story)

The commissioner said the suspects were being held in separate facilities in the capital to ensure they cannot communicate with one another.

The police commissioner said Saturday the arrest of Croes came after one of the three youths named him. The party boat he works aboard docks about 300 meters, or about 1,000 feet, from the Holiday Inn where Holloway was staying.

UPDATE: AP, Judge to Decide if Police Can Hold Fourth Man Arrested in Missing Teenager Case in Aruba

A fourth man arrested in the disappearance of an Alabama teenager – a disc jockey on a party boat – is to appear in court Monday for a judge to decide whether police can continue to detain him, officials said.

Also, here is a site that has captured the video’s of many of the newscasts. The only reason I have not posted previously is that it is a tripod site, and they tend to have a bunch of pop up ads. If you have a pop up blocker, head on over.