Van der Sloot taken to prison on murder charge

LIMA, Peru – Angry 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 beating and strangling death of a young 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 21-year-old 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 said 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 taken to the maximum-security Castro Castro prison.

Police say van der Sloot brutally murdered Flores three days after meeting her at a casino. He broke her nose, strangled her, threw her to the floor then emptied her wallet and drove away in her SUV, said Gen. Cesar Guardia, chief of the criminal police.

If convicted on the murder and robbery charges, van der Sloot would be sentenced to between 15 and 35 years in prison, court spokesman Luis Gallardo told the AP.

At Castro Castro prison, the Dutchman will have his own cell in a small block near the director’s office. Rodriguez said van der Sloot asked to be put in a cell by himself because he fears other inmates will kill him.