A lawyer for the Dutchman suspected of the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway is challenging his extradition to the United States for fraud, calling it an “abuse of authority” which violates his client’s rights.
Attorney Máximo Altez said in an interview that neither he nor Joran van der Sloot was told of the extradition order to Alabama for fraud related to Holloway and his family.
Altez said he plans to file a writ of habeas corpus, or a lawsuit he says will grant van der Sloot due process before his extradition, scheduled for Thursday.
Van der Sloot received a provisional passport for the process on Monday, but Altez said he “didn’t accept it.”
“I don’t know how they’re going to extradite him,” Altez said. “He’s not willing to do it voluntarily.”
The extradition relates to a 2010 federal criminal complaint filed in Birmingham, Alabama, alleging that van der Sloot was behind a fraudulent scheme that promised to offer the location of Holloway’s remains.
Holloway, 18, disappeared in Aruba in 2005 on a high school graduation trip and was never found. Van der Sloot was arrested when she disappeared but was later released and never charged with a crime. A judge later pronounced Holloway dead.
Van der Sloot is serving a 28-year sentence for the 2010 murder of Peruvian business student Stephany Flores.
In the alleged fraud scheme, van der Sloot is accused of trying to extort hundreds of thousands of dollars from Holloway’s family in exchange for the alleged details of his death.
Holloway’s mother sent $25,000 to an account in the Netherlands for van der Sloot and a US lawyer to visit the site in Aruba where van der Sloot said Holloway was buried.
Federal prosecutors said van der Sloot knew the details he provided were false — in an email he called the information “worthless” — but he kept the $25,000 anyway.
Van der Sloot was charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of extortion.
Altez said Monday that van der Sloot spent the $25,000 on gambling.
He described van der Sloot as a “sick person” and compulsive gambler who “took advantage of the circumstances” when Holloway’s mother sent the money.
This article originally appeared on NBCNews.com