– The Associated Press

AMSTERDAM – A Dutch newspaper that interviewed Joran van der Sloot in his Lima, Peru, prison cell said Monday he has retracted his confession to the killing of a woman there.

De Telegraaf said the Dutchman claims he only signed papers admitting killing Stephany Flores because he was intimidated by police and had been promised he’d be transferred to the Netherlands if he confessed.

“I was very scared and confused during the interrogations and wanted to get away,” the paper quoted him as saying.

Van der Sloot is the main suspect in Flores’ May 30 killing in a Lima hotel, exactly five years after the still-unsolved disappearance of U.S. teen Natalee Holloway on Aruba. Both were last seen alive in his company.

Peruvian President Alan Garcia has said van der Sloot will have to be tried in the death of Flores, 21, before any extradition request can be considered.

In addition to possible involvement in Holloway’s disappearance — in which van der Sloot has not been charged — he is wanted by the FBI on suspicion of attempting to extort money from the Holloway family.

If convicted of killing Flores, he faces from 15 to 35 years in prison in Peru.

Prosecutors allege van der Sloot killed Flores in his hotel room. According to a transcript of the confession, he elbowed her in the nose, strangled her, threw her to the floor, took off his shirt and asphyxiated her.

The newspaper said he now says that’s not true.

He is slated to be interviewed by a judge in Lima this week.

A self-avowed compulsive liar, van der Sloot has several times given and retracted admissions of involvement in Holloway’s disappearance.