Natalee Holloway's mother said Tuesday that she's worried the two Surinamese brothers, who were released in the case of the missing Alabama teenager on Monday, might leave Aruba where they had been jailed since June 9.
"I'm asking all nations not to offer them a safe haven," a tearful Beth Holloway Twitty said, adding that she fears the two brothers "will not only be allowed to walk freely among the tourists and citizens of Aruba but there are no limits as to where they may go."
The brothers, Deepak Kalpoe, 21, and Satish Kalpoe, 18, were released Monday – the same day that criminal charges had been expected to be announced in the unsolved case.
A third detainee, Joran van der Sloot, the 17-year-old son of a high-ranking Aruban official, remained in custody for another 60 days as police continue their search for Holloway, 18, who vanished on the island during a chaperoned trip with a high school group.
Twitty has insisted that the brothers, along with van der Sloot, have important information about Natelee's disappearance and should be held until they release it. "All three of those boys know what happened to her," she said, according to the Associated Press.
Attorney Rudy Oomen said it was unclear if his client Deepak Kalpoe, 21, and brother Satish, 18, are still regarded as suspects, reports the Associated Press. As for their release after nearly a month in jail, Oomen suggested that authorities lacked evidence that the brothers were involved in Holloway's disappearance.
On Sunday, all three young men – who have acknowledged spending time with Holloway the night she disappeared – were taken separately to a beach near Aruba's Marriott hotel to verify their accounts, say reports.
Last Friday, in a major communications snafu, Aruba's Attorney General Karin Janssen announced that the trio had been charged with murder.
But then, Aruba's chief government spokesman, Ruben Trapenberg, quickly stepped up and said that, in fact, the detainees had not been formally charged – but could be as soon as Monday, reports the Associated Press.
Trapenberg blamed the confusion on "semantics. It's been a problem since day one. The charging is a formal process that happens later on. It could happen as soon as Monday."
But no charges were announced Monday.
In several TV news interviews, Holloway's mother, Beth Holloway Twitty, has roundly criticized investigators, whom she accuses of possibly shielding someone – such as van der Sloot's 52-year-old father. Paul van der Sloot, a Dutch judge in training, was briefly taken into custody, then released.
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