Now that Joran van der Sloot has pleaded guilty to charges of killing a young Peruvian woman, federal officials in Alabama are ready to try and bring him back here to face trial for extortion charges related to the disappearance of Mountain Brook teenager Natalee Holloway while she was on a trip to Aruba."Of course we want him here to face charges," said Peggy Sanford, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorneys Office in Birmingham. "We're ready to go to trial whenever we get him."
"But right now," Sanford said, "we don't exactly know when that will be."
Van der Sloot pleaded guilty this morning in the death of 21-year-old Stephany Flores in his Lima hotel room on May 30, 2010 -- five years to the day of when Holloway disappeared. He is scheduled to be sentenced by a three-judge panel on Friday morning, CNN reported.
Federal officials have said a plan has been in place for months to give them a chance to bring van der Sloot to the state to face charges related to the 2005 disappearance of Halloway. Interpol -- the International Criminal Police Organization -- on behalf of the US has filed a hold on van der Sloot so that if, for any reason, he were to be release he would be held so the U.S. could attempt to extradite him.
Van der Sloot, who has long been a suspect in Holloway's disappearance, was charged in U.S. District Court in Birmingham in 2010 with attempting to extort money from Natalee Holloway's mother for information in the teen's disappearance.
Authorities say Van der Sloot confessed to killing Flores, claiming he became enraged after she discovered his connection to Holloway, The Associated Press reports.
Meanwhile, a Jefferson County Probate Court judge has set a final hearing for Thursday on a petition filed by Natalee's father, Dave Holloway, seeking a legal order officially declaring his daughter to be dead
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