Criminal investigation still on

Police and volunteers are ready for a big search operation for the disappeared teenager in June of 2005.

ORANJESTAD – Yesterday was exactly two years ago that the 18-year old American student Natalee Holloway disappeared. The criminal investigation is still going. The main suspect in the case, Joran van der Sloot said in April that the case will probably be closed in May, because the usual duration of criminal cases is two years. The OM indicated that the basic principle of criminal cases in First Instance is that the trial and verdict indeed take place within two years after the ‘reasonable term’ has started.

That reasonable term starts the moment a suspect can reasonably assume that he will be prosecuted. This is not laid down in a specific rule, but the beginning of the reasonable term can be when the suspect is taken into custody, or when an inquest is opened against the suspect.

“Both possibilities occurred in this criminal case”, said the OM. Van der Sloot was taken into custody on June 9th, 2006. The investigation and the hearing against him would have basically been concluded on this date. But according to the OM , there are circumstances that may prolong criminal cases with more than two years, ‘without being able to say that the duration is unreasonably long”. Circumstances are the complexity of the case, the influence of the suspect and/or his lawyer on the progress of the process and the way the case is handled by the authorized authorities.

The reasonable term for the investigation and the settlement of the criminal case does not start on the day of the offence, says the OM. The limitation period starts one day after the date a ‘presumptive criminal offence’ is committed. The OM emphasizes that these two terms must clearly be distinguished from each other. The limitation period for a life offence is 12 years, and for murder 8 years. “When the in February proposed new Aruban Criminal Code in introduced, murder will never be precluded by the lapse of time.” From that moment on a suspect of murder can be prosecuted, even if the suspect has been subject to location and prosecution for a few years already”, says the OM.