CSI: Aruba, part 6 - Depends on what the meaning of "charged" is
Okay, I'm breaking my no-post rule for the day. Just try and make sense of this if you can. On Friday, the chief prosecutor in Aruba told the media that the three still-held suspects in the Natalee Holloway disapppearance had already been charged with her murder, and that prosecutors didn't need a body in order to proceed with a case. Today, a judge orders the Kalpoe brothers released. Huh? The wire stories have since been updated, but here is the text of the July 1 AP report, remember, this is just three days ago:
Report: Aruba Suspects Charged With Murder Friday, July 01, 2005
ORANJESTAD, Aruba — The three young men detained in the Natalee Holloway case have reportedly been charged with murder. Aruba's chief prosecutor told The Associated Press that the murder charges were filed soon after the suspects were arrested more than three weeks ago. Those charged include Joran van der Sloot (search), 17, and his friends, Surinamese brothers Deepak Kalpoe, 21, and Satish Kalpoe, 18, Aruban Attorney General Karin Janssen said.
Janssen explained that the charges weren't announced at the time they were handed down to protect the family of the missing honors student from Alabama. "At the time, we didn't want to upset the (Holloway) family talking about murder while they searched," Janssen said. Janssen, who has said several times in the past three weeks that no one was charged in the case, said they also kept the information quiet in order not to compromise their investigation. Authorities have said they have no physical evidence suggesting Holloway is dead.
Then, later that day came the following correction:
ORANJESTAD, Aruba -- After initially reporting that prosecutors in Aruba said that three young men they've been holding in the disappearance of an Alabama teen had been charged with murder, The Associated Press now says that is not the case.
In its corrected story, the AP says that Aruba's chief government spokesman says the three suspects have not been formally charged but could be as soon as Monday.
Earlier, Aruba's attorney general, Karin Janssen, told The Associated Press in a recorded interview that the young men had been charged with murder since their arrest three weeks ago. The government spokesman, Ruben Trapenberg, contacted the AP following the English-language interview with Janssen.
"This a question of semantics. It's been a problem since day one," Trapenburg said. "The charging is a formal process that happens later on. It could happen as soon as Monday."
Three weeks ago, three days from now, kept quiet so as not to hurt the family ... yeah, you're right, all a matter of mangled semantics. Maybe under Dutch law charges can be placed at the ready, to be formally invoked later on? Perhaps. And so today, on the day the suspects faced imminent formal charges, comes the news that two out of the three suspects aren't any closer to being charged than there were (or is that weren't...) three weeks ago:
The judge ordered 21-year-old Deepak Kalpoe and his 18-year-old brother, Satish, freed after hearings Monday morning. Suspect Joran Van Der Sloot, 17, was ordered held for another 60 days while police continue to investigate.
Authorities have interrogated the suspects numerous times since their arrests June 9. The three have not been charged, and defense attorneys have said they are innocent. ...
Just what kind of game is the Aruban prosecutor playing, anyway? I don't buy that this is a case of the media getting it wrong, since AP was simply reporting what the chief proescutor was telling them -- complete with an explanation of why the "charges" weren't announced before. Either the anouncement Friday was meant purely as CYA, or charges were filed and then withdrawn (or junked by the judge for lack of evidence...)
The Holloway family has got to be in knots over the conflicting reports, including the very basic question of whether Aruban authorities believe Natalee Holloway is alive or dead, and whether or not authorities just released two suspects who are already charged -- or whom they intend to charge -- with murder. Do the Aruban authories even have a theory in this case? I know there aren't many murders on the tiny island and so investigators there have about as much practice at this sort of thing as the authorities who investigated the Jon Benet Ramsey murder in Colorado, but this kind of turnabout is odd to say the least...
Update:Scared Monkeys and Riehlworld view both report on the rumor -- and so far it's only that -- that Joran Van der Sloot's attorney may file a motion for his release as well:
SM: Joran’s attorney will file a motion for reconsideration (appeal) of the judge’s decision today. If the lack of evidence that forced the release of the Kalpoe brothers is true , we can expect the motion may be successful. This would mean Joran van der Sloot could be released by next weekend.
Riehl: It would require a judge to once again be brought in from Curacao for such a hearing and he could be released if it were ruled so. But that would call for today's judgment to, in effect, be over-turned.
Somehow it seems unlikely that a judge will order the Kalpoe brothers re-incarcerated, but in this case, clearly it's best to expect the unexpected.
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"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
