Joran van der Sloot Says He Is 'Surviving' in Prison

June 22, 2010— -- Accused killer Joran van der Sloot blames himself for landing in a rat-filled Peruvian prison cell, but he suggests that the FBI lured him to Peru in a botched sting operation.

Van der Sloot's interview with the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf is the latest in a series of startling comments from the Dutch playboy charged with the murder of Stephany Flores, 21, of Peru, and the prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway.

He is also charged with extorting $25,000 from Holloway's mother, Beth Twitty, promising to show her where Natalee's body was buried in exchange for the money.

After receiving payment, he claimed the body was buried in the foundation of a building that didn't even exist at the time of her disappearance, according to the federal indictment. When confronted with the fact, van der Sloot admitted that he lied, the document states.

The 22-year-old Van der Sloot is now suggesting to the newspaper that he was lured to Peru by the FBI to facilitate extraditing him to the U.S. He claims a man named "Garcia" invited him to a poker tournament in Lima, Peru, where van der Sloot met Flores.

"Garcia arranged and paid for everything for me. Looking back, I can't believe I let myself be lured. I hardly knew that guy. It was just a setup," the paper quoted him as saying.

Van der Sloot met Flores at a gambling table, and he has signed a confession admitting killing her while back at his hotel room in rage after she discovered his connection to the Holloway case and allegedly struck him.

Joran van der Sloot Says He Is "Surviving" in Prison

He has since refuted his confession, saying he was tricked into signing it, believing he was just signing an acknowledgement of his legal rights. He is demanding that the confession be thrown out of court.

Nevertheless, he admitted to De Telegraaf that he should have listened to his mother.

"I am surviving," he told the paper. "It's my own fault I am here."

Van der Sloot said he understands why even his mother, Anita van der Sloot, told the paper that she can't visit him in prison and was quoted as saying, "Joran could have killed Stephany."

"I have caused her and many other people too much pain. If only I had listened to her," van der Sloot said.

Former FBI investigator and ABC News consultant Brad Garrett scoffed at the suggestion that the FBI would lure van der Sloot to Peru in order to extradite him on the extortion charge.

"I think the question is, could they have done it? Of course they could have done it," he said. "The real question is would they have done it, and the logical answer is probably, no."

Federal agents would need the approval of the Justice Department as well as Peru to operate in Lima, and have the cooperation of local police, he said.

"I'm not convinced it is even the type of case the FBI would put the energy into," Garrett said.

Van der Sloot has behaved erratically since his arrest in Chile and his return to Peru. On Monday, he refused to speak to the judge in his case who traveled to the notorious Castro Castro prison to take a statement from van der Sloot.

After allegedly giving a detailed statement on how and why he killed Flores, he claims to have been tricked into signing it.

"During the interrogations I was very frightened and confused, and I wanted to leave," van der Sloot told the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf in the notorious Castro Castro jail in Lima, Peru.

"'If you sign these papers you will be extradited to the Netherlands,' they were telling me all the time. In my blind panic I then signed everything, but I did not even know what was written down," he told the newspaper.

When asked by a reporter about the murder of Flores, van der Sloot replied, "I have been framed. What happened exactly, I will explain later."

He also complained to the newspaper that he has to share his prison cellblock with a Colombian murderer, a corrupt Peruvian general and rats that creep into his cell through the toilet at night.