A Dutch newspaper that interviewed Joran van der Sloot in his prison cell reported Monday that he has retracted his confession in the killing of a young woman in Peru.
According to De Telegraaf, the 22-year-old Dutchman said he only signed papers admitting killing Stephany Flores because he was intimidated during interrogation and had been promised he would be transferred to the Netherlands. Van der Sloot claimed he had been "tricked" into confessing.
"I was really scared during the interrogations, I was confused and just wanted it to end" he told the newspaper. "They kept telling me, 'If you sign these papers you'll be extradited to the Netherlands'.
"I was in a blind panic and signed everything they put in front of me, I didn't even know what was in those papers."
Van der Sloot is the main suspect in Flores' May 30 killing in a Lima hotel, exactly 5 years after the still unsolved disappearance of U.S. teen Natalee Holloway on Aruba. Both women were last seen alive in his company.
He has several times given and retracted admissions of involvement in Holloway's disappearance.
During the De Telegraaf interview, van der Sloot also claimed that rats entered his cell at night.
He reportedly shares his cell block at the notorious Castro Castro prison with a Colombian assassin and a Peruvian general who has been jailed for corruption.
