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"That must be in reference to the comments made by Greta Van Susteren. She questioned whether the FBI had enough to make an extortion case, but were holding out for a murder charge, and in doing so let van der Sloot escape to Peru."

I wish I would have heard that particular show. I have great respect for Van Susteren's legal expertise, but I can't think what possible statute the feds would have used to charge Joran with murder here in the states.

While the US does assert extraterritorial jurisdiction in some crimes (mostly terrorism, and some crimes related to MEJA), simple murder isn't one of them.

If Joran took her in a boat and traveled outside the territorial waters of Aruba, and the feds could prove it, then they'd have a case as US Code does give the DOJ tremendous latitude for prosecuting crimes on the open seas.

That was the argument by Ted Williams (she brought back the legal panel). Williams argued that the FBI could have had Aruban officials pick him up and extradite him to the USA on extortion charges, and then the FBI can work him over in an American prison. The immediate goal should have been to get van der Sloot into the United States.

Instead, Van Susteren was suggesting that the FBI waited too long, or that the Arubans tipped off van der Sloot that the FBI was coming, and he fled before the FBI could act.

Here's the transcript of the Greta show.

-PJ