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Lawyers: Aruban judge quashes taped interview with suspect

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PALM BEACH, Aruba (CNN) -- The Aruban judge overseeing the case against suspects in the disappearance of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway ordered NBC not to broadcast an interview with Joran van der Sloot, his attorney told CNN.

The interview had been conducted Wednesday by NBC's cable network, MSNBC.

"We argued before the judge that what NBC did was totally unacceptable, totally unethical, totally unprofessional, and that that has nothing to do with journalism, but that the only aim of what NBC has done was to try to tarnish and further prejudice the good name of our client," lawyer Antony Carlo told reporters.

"The judge agreed with our position," he said, and ordered NBC not to air the footage under threat of a fine.

A camera crew and reporter for MSNBC went Wednesday to interview the director of the prison where van der Sloot is being held, attorney Vinda De Sousa told CNN's "Larry King Live."

During the course of the interview, the director asked the journalists if they wanted to see the cells, she said.

During their tour, "they did interview him (van der Sloot) and they asked him some questions," De Sousa said.

"It's a case about Joran van der Sloot saying he did not give them permission to film him or interview him," she said. "It's a matter of privacy versus freedom of the press."

De Sousa said the interview was brief: "They asked him how he was doing; he said, 'I'm doing fine'; then they wanted to ask him about the case. He responded, 'I'm not going to say anything about the case because my defense attorneys don't want me to say anything to the press.'"

NBC released a statement late Wednesday saying it would respect the court's order and not broadcast the videotape "at this time." However, the network said "we are considering our next course of legal action."

NBC said it had permission to be inside the prison and was there at the invitation of the warden.

Natalee Holloway, 18, from the affluent Birmingham, Alabama, suburb of Mountain Brook, was celebrating her high school graduation with about 100 classmates and several parent chaperones when she disappeared early May 30. She was last seen leaving a nightclub with van der Sloot and two brothers, Satish and Deepak Kalpoe.

The Kalpoes were arrested and jailed June 9 but have since been released. They have told police they dropped Holloway and van der Sloot off at a beach north of the Marriott Hotel after they left the nightclub. Neither they nor van der Sloot have been charged with a crime, and their lawyers have said they were not involved in the teen's disappearance.

Van der Sloot's mother said her son told her he was on the beach with Holloway but left her there because she wanted to stay.

Holloway was to have started her first day of college Wednesday as a freshman at the University of Alabama.

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