The 24-year-old Dutchman entered in a blue blazer and faded blue jeans with a bullet-proof vest beneath the jacket.
His has a close-cut crew cut and is wearing a long-sleeve gray shirt.
An interpreter is being sworn in. The Dutchman's attorney said his client may enter a guilty plea. Van der Sloot was also the prime suspect in the unsolved 2005 killing of U.S. citizen Natalee Holloway from Mountain Brook, Alabama.
