No, I have no connection to Joran or his family. I've never met or communicated with any of them.
I can only speak for myself, but I came to believe in Joran's innocence in the Holloway case by analysis of the evidence. Joran's testimony actually doesn't play much of a role in my thinking at all. I have stated my belief that he is a habitual liar. However, I think his chronic lying really went into overdrive a few years ago, when he first realized he could profit from giving sensationalist accounts of what happened to Natalee.
Was he a nice guy for doing that? Of course not. Did he display little or no empathy for Natalee and her family as he told his stories? Absolutely. You won't find me condoning his behavior. However, like the Aruban authorities, I recognized immediately that each of his stories was a wild yarn, told only for the purpose of getting paid. I think the reason he could confidently tell these tales-two of which were terribly self-incriminating-is because he knows that he didn't cause Natalee to disappear, and has nothing to fear even if he gives them yet another location for her body.
I am not here to say that Joran is a nice guy, an upstanding citizen or even that he's mentally balanced at this point. I really don't know that he is, although I wouldn't perform an amateur psychoanalysis on him, like all the unprofessional "experts" feel comfortable in doing on t.v. He clearly has at least a powerful gambling addiction, and a lack of principles where money is concerned. How far would he go for money? I don't really know, but I don't think there is any evidence that someone would have paid him to kill either Natalee or Stephany.
Looking at the whole picture, and factoring the Natalee Holloway case into it, I find the entire sequence of events in Peru to be suspicious. I've explained the various points of contention in several posts here. Ultimately, I don't think Joran will live to stand trial. If he does go to trial, there is no question that he will be convicted. Thus, for those of us who don't believe he is a murderer, we can only try to make our points in public- on forums like this, and hopefully eventually in a book.
Could I be wrong about Joran? Sure. It would really disappoint me to find out he's actually guilty of murder, because I've devoted a lot of time and effort into researching the Holloway case, and to defending him on that and against the charges in Peru, on this and other forums. No one likes to admit they're wrong, when they've expended such energy defending a view they're completely confident in- as I am about this.
I have no vested interest in Joran being innocent, except perhaps that his guilt would necessarily change the entire tone of my book (which I might very well abandon in that case, out of disillusionment). I care strongly about civil liberties, and can't stand to think that someone is being unjustly accused, and then unjustly punished, for something they didn't do.
I prefer a friendly game with friends.
