Aruba’s Chief Prosecutor Peter Blanken says he hopes to send a team to Peru to question Joran Van der Sloot before September.  The exact timing has not been determined yet, and Blanken reports that Aruban prosecutors will discuss the matter with police before deciding on a date.  He expects that two police officers and the public prosecutor assigned to the Holloway case, Mrs. Alivia Lugo, will make the trip to Peru  to question Van der Sloot about his statements on the 2005 disappearance of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway.

According to Blanken, Van der Sloot told Peruvian investigators that he wants to speak with Aruban Police to bring clarity to the Holloway case.  The Arubans have not yet filed a formal request with Peruvian authorities to send their investigative team, but Blanken says the Peruvians have indicated that they want to cooperate in the matter.

Without speculating on the veracity of Joran Van der Sloot’s statement in Peru, Chief Prosecutor Peter Blanken says he hopes interrogating the Dutch national this time will close the case.  “I hope he is speaking the truth because we really want to solve this case, even after five years,” Blanken said, “just to be clear on what happened and so the family knows what happened.”  Since 2005, Van der Sloot has given Aruban authorities and international media several conflicting accounts of what happened the night Holloway vanished.