Could Joran van der Sloot Get the Death Penalty in Peru for Murder of Stephany Flores?

Could Joran van der Sloot possibly get the death penalty in Peru for the murder of Stephany Flores? The answer is quite simply, no.

While Peru is one of nine countries in the world that does have the death penalty, it has many limitations. Peruvian law reads something to the effect that the death penalty may be considered, but only for crimes "committed in exceptional circumstances". This means that only crimes that are committed in times of war or genocide or crimes under military law can be considered as death penalty cases.

Peruvian President Alan Garcia wanted to introduce the death penalty into law in 2007, for terrorists, but even that bill was rejected. A poll taken in '07 determined that more than 70% of Peruvians were in favor of instituting a death penalty in their country.

Murder is considered a fairly ordinary crime in Peru, so that won't even be a consideration in the case of Joran van der Sloot. It is almost incomprehensible that he was never tried for the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. Now he has confessed to murdering Stephany Flores. Speculation has him serving only 15-35 years at the most. The Peruvian system is actually designed so that criminals who confess will be given more lenient sentences by the judge.

See video below that talks about the lack of the death penalty in Peru, and what speculation says about van der Sloot's possible sentence.

Source: K. Ripley, NewsGather.com, June 8, 2010

Joran van der Sloot Confesses To Murder, Will Get 15-35 Years “At The Most”

Joran van der Sloot could be formally charged as early as Tuesday in the killing of Stephany Flores Ramirez, Peruvian government authorities said.

The government authorities said Van der Sloot confessed to murder late Monday. He will likely be held at one of three maximum security prisons — Castro Castro, Piedras Gordas and Lurigancho, authorities said.

Efforts by CNN to contact van der Sloot’s attorney were not immediately successful. At his first court appearance, the judge may set a hearing date for van der Sloot and could order additional investigations in the case. The Peruvian justice system often issues a lighter sentence in cases where the suspect confesses. That may have influenced his alleged confession. Van der Sloot could get up to 35 years in prison. There is no death penalty or life sentence in Peru.

A Peruvian police report leaked Monday said Flores was found in his hotel room on the floor, half-dressed. The report provides new details about the hours before Flores’ body was found. Van der Sloot, who was twice arrested in connection with the disappearance of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway in Aruba in 2005.

Wow since there’s no death penalty or life sentence in Peru, they need to lock that boy up under the prison or something.

Source: CNN.com, June 8, 2010


Police say Van der Sloot confessed

LIMA, Peru | Joran Van der Sloot (left) — long the prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of a U.S. teen in Aruba — has confessed to killing a Peruvian woman in his Lima hotel room, police said Tuesday.

Officials said plans are in place to take Van der Sloot to the hotel where the 21-year-old business student was killed on May 30.

Officials also said Tuesday that police have until the weekend to file charges against the Dutchman for the May 30 killing of Stephany Flores.

The beating death occurred exactly five years after Natalee Holloway, an 18-year-old American, disappeared in Aruba — an assumed death in which Van der Sloot has been considered the prime suspect by authorities on the Dutch island in the Caribbean.

It wasn’t clear if Van der Sloot was represented by an attorney in Peru, and there was no comment from him or his family about the reported confession.

Peru’s chief police spokesman, Col. Abel Gamarra, told The Associated Press late Monday that Van der Sloot confessed earlier in the day.

Several Peruvian media outlets reported, without identifying their sources, that he admitted killing Flores in a rage after learning she looked up information about his past on his laptop without permission.

La Republica said Van der Sloot tearfully confessed, in the presence of a prosecutor and a state-appointed attorney, to grabbing Flores by the neck and hitting her because she had viewed images about the Aruba case on his computer while he was out buying coffee.

Gamarra, senior police officials and prosecutors would not provide details of the alleged confession, which came on Van der Sloot’s third full day in Peruvian custody.

Meanwhile, the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant quoted the suspect’s lawyer in the Netherlands as suggesting the confession may have been coerced.

“Joran told his mother crying Monday that he was being interrogated under reasonably barbaric conditions,” the paper quoted Bert De Rooij saying. “He said the police were trying to force him to confess.”

Under such conditions, he said, the “confession was possibly false.”

Officials at the Dutch Embassy, who said the suspect’s family was attempting to obtain private counsel for Van der Sloot, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Flores, the daughter of a Peruvian circus impresario and former race car driver, was found beaten to death, her neck broken, in the 22-year-old Dutchman’s hotel room. Police said the two met playing poker at a casino.

Source: kansascity.com, June 8, 2010

Peru-China: Extradition to Death Row

LIMA, Mar 1, 2010 (IPS) - The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has asked for precautionary measures in Peru to prevent the extradition to China of Wong Ho Wing, a Chinese national accused of crimes that could carry a death sentence in his country.

The IACHR's assistant secretary, Elizabeth Abi-Mershed, informed Wong's defence lawyer by letter of the Commission's application to the Costa Rica-based Inter-American Court of Human Rights, after the Peruvian justice system had approved China's extradition request.

Wong faces charges in his country of money laundering, bribery and customs tax fraud. The latter is a capital crime under Chinese law.

Abi-Mershed invoked paragraph two of Article 63 of the American Convention on Human Rights, which says: "In cases of extreme gravity and urgency, and when necessary to avoid irreparable damage to persons, the Court shall adopt such provisional measures as it deems pertinent."

A United Nations report presented at the Fourth World Congress Against the Death Penalty, held in Geneva Feb. 24-26, said that 141 countries have abolished the capital punishment in law or in practice.

But China led the world in the number of death sentences in 2008 - at least 7,003 - and executions - at least 1,718 the same year - according to the London-based human rights watchdog Amnesty International.

Wong was arrested by the Peruvian police Oct. 17, 2008 at the Lima airport as he was about to leave the country.

The Peruvian authorities were acting on an international arrest warrant issued by Interpol at the request of China's Public Security Ministry. Since his arrest, Wong has been held at the Sarita Colonia maximum security prison.

On Jan. 20, 2009 the Second Criminal Chamber of the Peruvian Supreme Court accepted a writ of habeas corpus on Wong's behalf, rejecting his extradition because the tax fraud charge against him pressed by the Chinese justice system is punishable in that country by death.

An appeal of habeas corpus safeguards a person's fundamental rights to life and liberty against acts or omissions of the judicial system that could cause the person harm. In Peru the law permits using habeas corpus writs against judicial decisions that have already been taken.

Nevertheless the extradition process has gone ahead.

The Criminal Code "stipulates that a person may not be extradited to a country where his or her alleged crime is subject to the death penalty," Wong's defence lawyer, Luis Lamas Puccio, told IPS.

The Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture similarly prohibits the extradition of a person charged with a crime that incurs the death penalty. However, "the Peruvian judicial branch is processing Wong's extradition," Lamas Puccio said.

Given the possibility that the Peruvian authorities may actually extradite Wong, his defence counsel appealed to the IACHR.

In March 2009, the executive secretary of the IACHR, Santiago Cantón, informed Lamas Puccio that the Commission had asked Lima not to agree to the extradition request.

In a letter to Peruvian President Alan García, the Inter-American Commission requested that the Peruvian state "refrain from extraditing Mr. Wong Ho Wing until the IACHR has ruled on the petition pending before it," which lays claim to his rights to life, personal integrity, equality before the law, judicial guarantees and judicial protection.

But the extradition proceedings continued, and the case came before the Permanent Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court, presided over by Judge Robinson Gonzales.

In spite of the writ of habeas corpus and the IACHR's precautionary measure, the judge continued processing the extradition request and elected to ask the Chinese embassy for assurances that the Chinese justice system would not execute Wong if he was extradited and found guilty.

On Dec. 10, 2009, the Chinese ambassador Zhao Wuyi informed Gonzales that he (Zhao) had "full authorisation to make a commitment that the death penalty will not be applied to Wong Ho Wing" if he were extradited as requested.

Next day Zhao told the judge that the Chinese Supreme People's Tribunal (Supreme Court) had formally decided that, if Wong were extradited from Peru to China and found guilty, the Tribunal "would not sentence him to death."

The non-governmental National Human Rights Coordinating Committee (CNDDHH) filed an "amicus curiae" (friend of the court) brief with the Criminal Chamber, pointing out China's track record on executions, and casting doubt on the assurances it had given.

"If extradition is granted, (the accused) will face a high risk of being sentenced to death and executed in China," the brief said.

"There is no guarantee whatsoever that the Chinese authorities will keep their promise (to Judge Gonzales), given that China holds the world record for executions," CNDDHH executive secretary Ronald Gamarra told IPS.

But in a majority decision Jan. 27, the Permanent Criminal Chamber presided over by Gonzales ruled in favour of extraditing Wong.

Now the way is clear for an executive branch resolution to authorise turning over Wong into the custody of the Chinese authorities.

In an attempt to prevent this, lawyer Lamas Puccio presented another writ of habeas corpus in February to prevent such action by President García, Foreign Minister José García Belaúnde and Justice Minister Aurelio Pastor, who have the responsibility of executing the extradition warrant.

"According to the law, the court must state its verdict within 24 hours in the case of precautionary legal action to save the life of a person in danger, but 16 days have gone by without a ruling," the lawyer said.

"Political interference is occurring in favour of the Chinese government. This might explain why the Justice Ministry refuses to provide any information, on the pretext that the case is confidential, which hinders a proper defence for the accused," he added.

In Gamarra's view, the Peruvian government may be behaving like this in order to avoid upsetting its excellent political and economic relations with China. A free trade treaty between the two countries came into force on Monday, Mar. 1.

But "the Peruvian government must be reminded that no treaty in the world can take precedence over the life of a human being," said Gamarra.

Source: IPS, March 1, 2010