Joran van der Sloot to Appeal Prison Sentence

Joran van der Sloot was sentenced to 28 years for the murder of Stephany Flores, but the killer is hoping to win an appeal and shorten that time dramatically.

"He is appealing his sentence and hopes he gets parole in less than five years," an insider revealed, meaning he could walk out a free man as soon as 2017.

He hasn't won anything yet, but that would be a fraction of the sentence that was handed to him on January 13 after he confessed to the May 2010 killing.

The 24-year-old Dutchman's lawyer, Jose Luis Jimenez, filed an appeal last week claiming that the three judges did not take into account his plea of guilty.

After being transferred from a more lenient Castro Castro prison to the maximum security Piedras Gordas, Joran has experienced several health problems:

"His health has suffered and he is not doing well there. Joran blames the food and the water, he says that he is depressed and feeling weak all the time."

Hearts are weeping around the world, no doubt.

Joran's home is considered one of the harshest places in the Peru, but many observers likely feel that even a full sentence at Piedras Gordas is not long enough.

He is, after all, the prime suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, who went missing in 2005. She was declared legally dead earlier this month.