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Joran Van der Sloot Trial Set for Jan. 6, Faces 30 Year Sentence

The Superior Court of Lima has set Joran Van der Sloot's trial on charges relating to the death of Stephany Flores for January 6.

The Court rejected the Flores family's request to increase the charges. He will be tried only on charges of qualified murder and simple robbery, carrying a maximum penalty of 30 years.

If convicted and sentenced to 30 years, he is expected to serve about 10 years. He's served 18 months to date. [More...]

From an assortment of Peruvian and Dutch articles, Joran's lawyers are considering asking the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to take the case.

Also, Joran's lawyers say the charge should be manslaughter or simple murder, not qualified murder. I explained the difference here. The qualified murder charge includes as an enhancer that the killing was done "with great ferocity and cruelty." The maximum sentence for simple murder is 20 years. For manslaughter (homicide through violent emotion) it would be 3 to 5 years. The Flores family wanted him charged with aggravated robbery resulting in death which would bring a life sentence. For some reason, in Peru, the penalty is greater for robbing someone and then killing them than it is for killing someone and then robbing or stealing from them.

Joran would also like to do a prisoner swap with the Netherlands, since an agreement was signed between the two countries in May. but that doesn't seem to be progressing.

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