Natalee Holloway Murder Suspect Joran van der Sloot ‘Severely Beaten’ in Peruvian Prison: Lawyer

The lawyer for Joran van der Sloot, the suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway, said his client has reportedly been “severely beaten” in a Peruvian prison.

Details are sparse about the circumstances of the suspected assault or of van der Sloot’s condition, according to WIS-TV.

Joran is currently awaiting extradition to the U.S. to face trial on extortion and wire fraud charges, as Front Page Detectives previously reported.

WIS-TV reported that Joran’s attorney doesn’t believe this attack was related to the upcoming extradition.

The U.S. trial involves federal charges filed in Alabama, which accuse van der Sloot of trying to extort money from the Holloway family in 2010. He allegedly promised to lead them to her body in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Joran is serving a 28-year sentence for the murder of a Peruvian woman, 21-year-old Stephany Flores, Front Page Detectives previously reported.

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Holloway, who was 18 at the time, went missing during a senior class trip to Aruba in 2005.

Authorities have never found her body and Joran has never been charged, but officials believe he and two other men are the last people to see Holloway alive, Front Page Detectives reported.

Holloway was declared legally dead by an Alabama judge in 2012.