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Aruba likely to allow tape implicating man in death
Associated Press
Published February 5, 2008
ORANJESTAD, Aruba - A hidden-camera interview with a Dutch student saying that missing American Natalee Holloway was dead and that he had a friend dump her body at sea is admissible in court, the chief Aruban prosecutor said Monday. The courts in Aruba will likely accept the tape as evidence because it was recorded by a private citizen without influence by authorities, Chief Prosecutor Hans Mos said. In the recordings, first broadcast Sunday on Dutch television, Joran Van der Sloot said Holloway, 18, was drunk and that she began shaking and slumped down on the beach as they were kissing in May 2005. Van der Sloot, 20, said that Holloway looked dead but that he could not be sure when a friend took her away. In the secretly taped interview, Van der Sloot speaks to Patrick van der Eem, a 34-year-old Dutch businessman who told ABC News that he befriended the younger man to pry a confession out of him. Joseph Tacopina, a lawyer for Van der Sloot, said his client was not responsible for Holloway's death and the tapes are not a confession. Last week, Van der Sloot said he lied in the tapes. Holloway of Mountain Brook, Ala., was last seen leaving a bar with Van der Sloot and two Surinamese brothers.
[Last modified February 4, 2008, 23:44:24]
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