ORANJESTAD, Aruba – An Aruban judge freed the father of a Dutch teen arrested in the disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway (search), the man's wife said — hours after the judge ordered a party boat disc jockey held in the case released.
Anita van der Sloot (search) said the most important thing for her now "is that my son comes [out] free."
Paul van der Sloot (search ), a high-ranking justice official studying to be a judge on the Dutch Caribbean island, had been arrested Thursday as a suspect for collaborating in a crime with his 17-year-old son, according to his lawyer.
"A little bit of the nightmare clouds are now disappearing," Anita van der Sloot told The Associated Press. "The truth will always come forward. From the beginning, I trusted everything would be fine."
The lawyer representing Paul van der Sloot said Sunday that his client has waived his right not to testify against his son. Under Aruban law, parents have the option to refuse to testify against their children. In waiving that right, Paul van der Sloot is essentially agreeing to take the stand.
Earlier Sunday, the judge also ordered police to release Steven Gregory Croes (search), the party boat disc jockey held in Holloway's disappearance, saying authorities did not have enough evidence against him, the man's lawyer said.
Croes, 26, was one of five people held in the case of the 18-year-old young woman last seen in the early hours of May 30. No one has been charged in the case, including the last person reportedly seen with her, 17-year-old Joran van der Sloot (search).
"A little bit of the nightmare clouds are now disappearing," Anita van der Sloot told The Associated Press. "The truth will always come forward. From the beginning, I trusted everything would be fine."
Searches for Holloway have been fruitless.
Croes, who was detained June 17, will be released Monday, said his lawyer, Eleni Lotter-Homan. He is a disc jockey on the party boat Tattoo, which offers nightly dining, dancing and swimming and docks near the Holiday Inn hotel where Holloway had been staying on Aruba, a Dutch protectorate.
"The judge agreed there is not enough proof he was involved to keep holding him,"
Police superintendent Jan van der Straaten said the court also ordered Paul van der Sloot released.
"At this moment I don't know why," he told The Associated Press.
Paul van der Sloot was taken into custody in order to make his son talk, Aruba's justice minister said Saturday.
"I think they're trying to put some acts of pressure on the son," Justice Minister Rudy Croes, who apparently is unrelated to the detained boat worker, told FOX News' Geraldo Rivera in an exclusive interview.
Croes had said the detention of Paul van der Sloot — whose son Joran changed the story he told police about the night of Natalee's disappearance — could be key to solving the case.
"Any moment, we can have the solution," Croes said. "I don't think [Joran], if he really participated in the disappearance of this lady, I don't think he can hold out for so long knowing his father is detained."
Croes said Joran and the two other jailed suspects were surveilled electronically after being released following an initial round of questioning. He implied that information picked up by such surveillance led to their second detention.
"That's why, after a certain moment, they were seized," said Croes.
Still jailed are the young van der Sloot and his friends, Surinamese brothers Deepak Kalpoe, 21, and Satish Kalpoe, 18. Van der Straaten said the judge on Sunday ordered their detention extended another week.
Under Dutch law, a suspect can be held for up to 116 days without charge if a judge decides police have good reason.
The three young men initially told police that after a night of eating, drinking and dancing, they took Holloway to a northern beach before dropping her off at her hotel around 2 a.m.
On Saturday, Satish Kalpoe's lawyer said his client admitted that his story was a lie.
Satish now claims that he and brother dropped Holloway and Joran van der Sloot off together at a beach near the Marriott hotel, then went home, said the lawyer, David Kock.
On Sunday, Kock said the brothers were becoming increasingly angry with Joran van der Sloot and accusing him of changing his story to put the blame for Holloway's disappearance on them. Kock would not elaborate.
Anita van der Sloot said her son told her that he was alone on a beach with Holloway and left her there unharmed in the early hours of the day she vanished.
Joran van der Sloot's lawyer, Antonio Carlo, said Sunday, "My client maintains his innocence."
In an anecdote that illustrated the insular world of Aruba, Justice Minister Croes said Paul van der Sloot had recently visited him in his office after failing to become a judge, apparently seeking a position in Croes' department. Van der Sloot had also taught the justice minister's daughter.
Aruban authorities have received criticism for their handling of the case. But Jug Twitty, Natalee's stepfather, told FOX News Saturday evening he believed investigators were now making progress.
"I think they are on the right track," he said. "They're putting the heat on [the suspects]."
FOX News' Geraldo Rivera, Jared Goldman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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