LIMA (Reuters) ? Dutch citizen Joran Van der Sloot went on trial on Friday for killing a young Peruvian woman in 2010, five years to the day after a U.S. teenager vanished on the island of Aruba after spending time with him.
Van der Sloot, who was also arrested but never charged in the 2005 disappearance in Aruba of 18-year-old Alabama native Natalee Holloway, has confessed to killing 21-year-old business student Stephany Flores after meeting her in a casino in Lima.
His defense lawyer said on Friday he would plead guilty.
Peruvian criminal law specialists have said prosecutors were initially expected to try for a sentence of life in prison against Van der Sloot. But they had to scale back their plans and are expected to ask for a 30-year term because of sentencing guidelines for murders in which robbery could be the primary motive.
If convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison, Van der Sloot would be eligible for parole after serving 10 years.
Peruvian police said Flores, a highly-skilled poker player and the daughter of a wealthy businessman, was robbed and killed on May 30, 2010, exactly five years after Holloway disappeared.
Van der Sloot has told police he strangled Flores after he found her looking at his laptop computer in his hotel room. The laptop contained emails about Holloway's death.
Van der Sloot, reportedly 24 years old, fled to Chile after Flores' death but was arrested there and returned to Peru for questioning.
The murder probe brought renewed attention to the case of Holloway, who vanished during a high school graduation trip in the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba, where Van der Sloot was living.
Van der Sloot was arrested twice in the Holloway case but he was never charged due to a lack of evidence. Holloway's family has criticized Dutch authorities for not making more progress in the case.
(Reporting by Guillermo Garcia and Terry Wade; Editing by Greg McCune and Peter Bohan)
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