Paul van der Sloot enters a police car upon leaving the courthouse in handcuffs in Oranjestad.
Will justice ever be done in the Natalee Holloway case? It is long overdue, much to the anguish of her family.
ORANJESTAD, Aruba — An Aruban judge on Sunday freed the father of a Dutch teen arrested in the disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway, the man's wife said — hours after the judge ordered a party boat disc jockey held in the case released.
Anita van der Sloot said the most important thing for her now "is that my son comes [out] free."
Paul van der Sloot, a high-ranking justice official studying to be a judge on the Dutch Caribbean island, had been arrested Thursday as a suspect for collaborating in a crime with his 17-year-old son, according to his lawyer.
"A little bit of the nightmare clouds are now disappearing," Anita van der Sloot told The Associated Press. "The truth will always come forward. From the beginning, I trusted everything would be fine."
The lawyer representing Paul van der Sloot said Sunday that his client has waived his right not to testify against his son. Under Aruban law, parents have the option to refuse to testify against their children. In waiving that right, Paul van der Sloot is essentially agreeing to take the stand.
Earlier Sunday, the judge also ordered police to release Steven Gregory Croes, the party boat disc jockey held in Holloway's disappearance, saying authorities did not have enough evidence against him, the man's lawyer said.
...Croes, who was detained June 17, will be released Monday, said his lawyer, Eleni Lotter-Homan. He is a disc jockey on the party boat Tattoo, which offers nightly dining, dancing and swimming and docks near the Holiday Inn hotel where Holloway had been staying on Aruba, a Dutch protectorate.
"The judge agreed there is not enough proof he was involved to keep holding him,"
Police superintendent Jan van der Straaten said the court also ordered Paul van der Sloot released.
"At this moment I don't know why," he told The Associated Press.
Paul van der Sloot was taken into custody in order to make his son talk, Aruba's justice minister said Saturday.
Is there a screwier legal system in the world than what passes for justice in Aruba?
The release of Paul van der Sloot and Steve Croes could signal the case is narrowing and getting closer to a resolution. It could also mean authorities are freeing them with the hopes that what they do upon release might reveal some new leads, like when they let Joran van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers go.
I have no faith whatsoever in the Aruban police and judges. It wouldn't surprise me if they released everyone and just gave up trying to find out what happened to Natalee.
Note to self: Do not plan to go to Aruba.
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