The other side...

From http://www.ad.nl/artikelen/Nieuws/1119938676169.html

Excuse any typos and the translation won't be word for word.

Quote

Parents convinced of innocense of the suspects in the Natalee case
"Joran won't be released any time soon"

By Maaike Ruepert

For the first time the parents of Joran ver der Sloot are talking to the press. Their son is suspected of the murder of the 18 year old American Natalee Holloway on Aruba.

They're uneasy. Understandable knowing the attention on the family by the American media. In their eyes Joran, who's already been behind bars for 3 weeks, already found guilty. Last week the police also arrested the dad Paul van der Sloot, judge in training. He also supposedly was involved with the disappearance of Natalee. "This is an absurd situation", the parents say.

Antiva van der Sloot (48) sits with red [?] eyes at the wooden dinner table in their house. She's only been able to visit her son twice since he's been in jail. During the talk she's making notes in her diary. "I keep track of everything. For the best seller I'll write when all of this is over", she says jokingly. "Sometimes I'm cynical to keep myself standing in all this craziness".

Paul (53) sits next to his wife. He answers the questions carefully. A week ago the police came - accompanied by a couple of camera crews - to arrest him. Three days he was kept in a police cell - 'an intense and profound experience' - until the judge decided there was no reason to keep him any longer. According to the justice he had given testimonies that did not match with the fact checks. "But after my arrest they only interviewed me once", says Van der Sloot. "At that time I reconfirmed what I said previously at the police station."

The media assumed that Van Der Sloot was arrested because he encouraged his son not to tell the truth about the night that NH disappeared. "I however told him to tell everything", says Van der Sloot.

Initially Jorans dad didn't know that his son was out on the night of 29th to 30th of May, when Natalee disappeared. "I picked him up at McDonalds at 11 and didn't know better than that he went to sleep." Not until Beth Holloway and several police officers arrived at the gate of his house, did he learn that his son also went to Carlos 'n Charles together with Natalee, he says.

To the police Joran initially told that he and his vriends Satisch and Deepak K, who're also in custody, that they had dropped off the girl at her hotel. Paul van der Sloot: "I believed that, until he changed his statement." All of a sudden Joran stated that he had left the girl alone on the beach at the Marriot hotel - by her request.

After he walked home, several kilometers away. Anite: "I was very angry when I heared that. But I think it was a panic reaction. Maybe he spun the truth - I don't want to call it a lie - because he wanted to get out of this. He has said from the start that he would never do anything to a girl. He respects girls."

Why he then left the girl alone on the beach, the parents don't know. "I really would love to talk to him about the case, but we're not allowed", says Anita. " But I know one thing for sure: that there adults have been involved." [?]

It doesn't look like Joran will be released soon. The police has so little evidence that the only hope is a confession. Joran is being iterrogated daily for several hours. Anita: "Sometimes he's in a dark, col room for hours, where he can only hear sounds. Another time he was surrounded by photos of Natalee. Your dad is also a crimininal, they told him. "Mam, theycall me a murderer, psychopat, rapist, he told me."

But according to Anita and Paul ver der Sloot their son is innocent. Paul hopes to visits his son soon, "I will tell him I love hime. That's what I'll tell him."