Van der Sloot Confession Allowed

The judge overseeing the murder case against Joran van der Sloot in Peru has ruled that the Dutchman’s confession is valid. Van der Sloot’s defense had argued that it should have been thrown out because the accused killer had only a state-appointed lawyer when he confessed to killing Stephany Flores in a hotel room May 30. But the judge said the state-appointed attorney was good enough, especially considering Van der Sloot had the aid of a Dutch-to-Spanish translator (he later recanted his confession to a Dutch newspaper while in jail). The only suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in Aruba five years ago, Van der Sloot could be on trial for as long as 18 months.