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Brothers in Holloway case walk away from jails -- again

  • Story Highlights
  • A judge ordered on Friday that Deepak and Satish Kalpoe be freed
  • Prosecutors have three days to appeal the decision
  • A third man, Joran van der Sloot, is still being held in the case
  • Natalee Holloway's parents meet with Aruba's chief public prosecutor
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ORANJESTAD, Aruba (CNN) -- Satish Kalpoe, one of two brothers rearrested last week in the 2005 disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway, shook his attorney's hand Saturday after leaving a jail in San Nicolas, Aruba.

A short time later, his brother, Deepak, left a jail in Noord, Aruba, dressed in jeans and carrying a white trash bag of clothes and personal items.

He was accompanied by two attorneys. Deepak had no comment when asked how it felt to be free.

Prosecutors wanted Deepak and Satish Kalpoe held in Aruba for another eight days, but a judge rejected their request Friday.

Hans Mos, Aruba's chief public prosecutor, has three days to appeal and will decide Monday whether or not to do so.

Meanwhile, Holloway's parents met with Mos for about an hour Saturday, and with interrogators for three hours. Neither spoke to reporters afterward.

The brothers' release was "a bit of a setback," Mos said Friday. But it does not change his plan to decide by the end of the year whether to prosecute anyone in Holloway's disappearance. Video Watch the prosecutor's reaction »

The Kalpoes, from Suriname, had previously been jailed in the case, but were rearrested last week and charged with being involved in the "voluntary manslaughter" of Holloway, as well as assault and battery leading to her death.

A third man, Joran van der Sloot, is still being held in the case. Van der Sloot is set to appear before a judge Friday, and prosecutors have said they are considering requesting that he be detained another 60 days.

In the Kalpoes' case, prosecutors said the judge reasoned Friday that "the new evidence, together with the existing evidence in this case, produce serious grounds for the suspicion of some kind of aiding and abetting, of covering up the traces of a crime committed or of the disposing of a corpse."

But people accused of those crimes do not qualify for pretrial detention under Aruban law, Mos said.

The prosecutor noted that on Monday, the same judge approved van der Sloot's continuing detention based on the same evidence.

"Apparently, the judge sees a difference between the third suspect and these two suspects," he said, since he concluded the evidence against the Kalpoes was not strong enough to warrant their continued detention.

Prosecutors said when the arrests took place November 21, they had new incriminating evidence against the three men.

They were the last people seen with Holloway, 18, as she left an Oranjestad nightclub on May 30, 2005. Holloway -- who was on a trip to Aruba with about 100 classmates celebrating their graduation from Mountain Brook High School in suburban Birmingham, Alabama -- did not show up the next day for her flight home. See a timeline of the case »

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Holloway has never been found. Van der Sloot and the Kalpoes have maintained their innocence in her disappearance.

Mos has told CNN he believes authorities have enough evidence to prove Holloway is dead, even if her body is never found. He has suggested her death was an accident. E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend

CNN's Tracy Sabo contributed to this report.

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