Preliminary investigation Holloway-case almost wound up
Amigoe
3/16/2006

ARUBA – From the interlocutory injunction in the damages case of the family Van der Sloot it is understood that the Public Prosecutor (OM) expects to wind up the preliminary investigation in the Holloway-case this month. Without insight into the criminal preliminary investigation, the judge does not want give a verdict. The file of the criminal preliminary investigation can only be released to the judge when the investigation is wound up. The family Van der Sloot claims 531.000 florins [USD$296,648].

The family indicated that the compensation for emotional damages as the result of the criminal preliminary investigation on Joran as well as on his father Paul van der Sloot is 350.000 [USD$195,531] florins and the material damages 144.000 [USD$80,447], an additional 25.000 [USD$13,966] florins due to means of coercion, and 11.935 [USD$6,668] florins in legal costs.

According to the OM, 25.000 [USD$13,966] florins compensation is enough for the family.

During the hearing in January, an important question was whether the judge should be acquainted with the entire file in order to decide on the claim for damages. The OM indicated then that the entire file will be made available in March and that shortly after that, they will decide on further persecution. The judge decided to wait for this, especially because Joran is also one of the claimants. The criminal preliminary investigation against him is still open. Based on the file, the judge also wants to be able to determine whether ‘other means of coercion’ are applied and if those have caused damages, like the family says. The judge decided first that only Paul van der Sloot would possibly qualify for damages, but the Court of Appeals decided that all the five members of the family can qualify for damages.