Joran Van der Sloot Reportedly Committed Suicide

hidflect - You are talking utter and complete nonsense! These born-rich kids you're jealous of actually grow up going to school, and they don't switch schools every week and they do form strong ties and get into great long term marriages. The problem is not wealth, the problem is Joran and the fact that he's a pyschopathic serial murderer - do not blame money for this, and they weren't even that rich by any kind of global standards. It's not about money, you're just jealous because you're poor. This is not about "not forming long-term ties" or some other bullsh*t excuse, he's just a murderous psychopath and those come in all flavors rich or poor.

I guess I have to agree with hidflect on this one. 

If his family did not have money and extreme power he would be in jail right now. As is, it appears that another innocent 21 year old had to pay the price.

I would expect that every legal system in the world favors the rich and powerful. In Canada, if you have the money, you can hire a top lawyer to defend your case from every angle. If you do not have money, you have a lawyer appointed by legal aid who may honestly defend you, but is limited in ability and resources.

I agree with cats in that being wealthy does not make you evil. However, being born into extreme wealth and power completely disconnects you from the legal liabilities that are faced by the general population. Joran is an excellent example of how the two tier justice system works.

Brian Mulroney is another excellent example of the two tier justice system...

In 1997, Mulroney settled a libel lawsuit he had brought against the Government of Canada two years previously. Mulroney received an apology and a $2.1 million reimbursement for legal and public relations costs. At issue were allegations that Mulroney had accepted bribes in the "Airbus affair" concerning government contracts. The government said the charges could not be substantiated. The principal Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) investigator on the case retired a year later. The government later dropped the investigation entirely.

But a key fact was unknown in 1997. Mulroney confirmed that he had personally accepted $225,000 ($300,000 according to Schrieber) in cash from Karlheinz Schreiber, a German-Canadian businessman who had been a paid broker for Airbus and other companies. The cash changed hands in three secret meetings in hotels in Montreal and New York. The payments occurred over an 18-month period, beginning in 1993 when Mulroney had stepped down as Prime Minister but was still a member of Parliament. In 2007, Mulroney stated that he had kept the cash in a New York safety deposit box (thus stating he had not carried it undeclared across the US-Canada border) and in a safe in his Montreal home.

Schreiber had at his disposal $20 million from Airbus for the payment of secret commissions. CBC Television reported on February 8, 2006[35] that the money Schreiber paid to Mulroney originated in a Swiss bank account code-named "Frankfurt". Schreiber used the same account to pay the secret Airbus commissions. Schreiber transferred $500,000 from "Frankfurt" to an account in Zürich code-named "Britan" on July 26, 1993 and used these funds to make the three cash payments to Mulroney in 1993 and 1994.

Five years after the payments began, Mulroney and Schreiber met again in a suite at the Hotel Savoy in Zurich, Switzerland. Schreiber claims Mulroney tried to extract a promise: Schreiber would never reveal the payments. Schreiber also claims Mulroney's attorneys later tried to induce him into perjury by asking that he sign an affidavit falsely stating that he had never paid any money to Mulroney. Mulroney denies this, and also denies Schreiber's claim that the payments totaled $300,000.

Testifying before the House of Commons Ethics Committee on December 13, 2007, Mulroney said the cash payments were for lobbying foreign leaders to buy armored vehicles fromThyssen industries, a company Schreiber represented. Mulroney said Schreiber had paid him as a consultant for this task only, in the context of the potential Bear Head project, which had actually been canceled 3 years prior to his accepting payment. Mulroney said he never had a written contract, made written reports, or issued receipts for the cash payments. Mulroney said he had destroyed records related to the transactions and received the payments in cash at Schreiber's insistence. Mulroney denied any legal wrongdoing. He admitted to errors in judgment and apologized for the appearance of impropriety. Mulroney described the affair as "a near death experience" and said his family had suffered greatly.

For many years, Mulroney had not acknowledged receiving money from Schreiber. The payments were not disclosed in Mulroney's 1995 lawsuit against the Government of Canada. Mulroney had falsely testified under oath that he "never had any dealings" with Schreiber, knew him only "peripherally" and they had a cup of coffee "once or twice". In his 2004 book A Secret Trial, former law professor William Kaplan describes Mulroney's testimony as evasive, incomplete and misleading.

In his testimony, Schreiber made allegations that imply "...a Canadian party leader subverted and deposed by foreign interests, of federal contracts being used to funnel money back to those interests, of bid-rigging and kickbacks."[36]

Mulroney and Schreiber question each other's truthfulness and credibility. In his testimony to the Canadian House of Commons Ethics Committee on December 13, 2007, Mulroney pointed out contradictory statements Schreiber has made over the years, including statements made under oath. Mulroney also stated that the work he had performed for his arms-trading business associate Schreiber was out-of-country, rather than lobbying his own Canadian government – such as lobbying the late President Boris Yeltsin that Russia buy arms yet to be made in Canada. Schreiber had been incarcerated in Canada following his 1999 arrest on a German warrant for tax evasion, and is currently (June 2008) free on bail. Mulroney did not declare the income or pay taxes on it until years later, when Schreiber had come under criminal investigation in Germany. Erik Nielsen, former Deputy Prime Minister for Mulroney, has stated disbelief in Mulroney's account and credibility.[37]

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper had called a public inquiry in November, 2007, and appointed David Lloyd Johnston as a special adviser, to study the matter and prepare terms of reference for the inquiry – although Johnston had once reported directly to Mulroney during his term as prime minister. Johnston reported to Harper on January 11, 2008 that he had found 16 significant questions which required further examination. Harper accepted the report, and stated that a limited public inquiry process would begin once the House of Commons Ethics Committee finished its work.[38]

Schreiber lost his fight against extradition to Germany, where he is at the center of a bribery scandal that helped bring down a government and damaged the legacy of former ChancellorHelmut Kohl. He appeared before the House of Commons Ethics Committee three times in late November and early December 2007, and again in February 2008, and will likely be called upon to testify at the future limited public inquiry. Mulroney appeared before the Ethics Committee on December 13, 2007. Six weeks later, his lawyers submitted a letter to Paul Szabo, the Ethics Committee chairman, indicating that their client would not appear again before the committee because of his "unfair" treatment on December 13.[39] On February 26, 2008, two days before that scheduled appearance, CTV News reported that Mr. Mulroney's lawyer had reiterated Mulroney's refusal to reappear before the Committee.[40]

source wikipedia

UPDATE
Holloway Suspect Joran van der Sloot Arrested in Chile
SANTIAGO, Chile -- Chilean police say they have detained a Dutch man sought in the murder of a woman in Peru.

Police spokeswoman Macarena Olivares says Joran van der Sloot has been taken into custody in Chile's capital of Santiago.

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