Van der Sloot faces 30 years in prison for Peru murder

LIMA: Joran van der Sloot, the prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway in Aruba, faces up to 30 years in prison for the 2010 murder of Stephany Flores in Peru, the prosecution said Friday.

The 24-year-old Van der Sloot has been in Peruvian jail for 15 months and has been charged with the murder of 21-year-old Flores in a Lima hotel. The Dutch native also remains the main suspect in the disappearance of Holloway, who was 18 when she disappeared in Aruba in 2005.

The prosecutor Miriam Rivero filed charges Friday for the "murder and rape of young Stephany Flores," the daughter of a well-known businessman in Lima. Flores was found dead in Van der Sloot's hotel room in May 2010, hours after meeting him in a casino.

The charges also call for a fine of 200,000 sol ($73,000).

Rivero will also ask for five years in prison for three Peruvians, the chauffeurs who drove Van der Sloot in his effort to flee to Chile, 48 hours after the murder.

Van der Sloot had initially pleaded guilty, but then claimed that his confession was extorted. He then said he killed Flores under extreme emotional anger after Flores accessed files about Holloway on his computer.

Van der Sloot was twice arrested in the Holloway case and spent three months in jail but was never charged. Holloway's body has never been found.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011