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Italian judges postpone ruling on reopening Meredith Kercher case Italian judges order fresh appeal in Meredith Kercher case
(about 20 hours later)
Judges for Italy's highest appeals court have said they need more time to decide whether to uphold or quash the acquittals of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher, postponing a ruling until Tuesday. The highest court in Italy has ordered a fresh appeal trial over the death of the British student Meredith Kercher, two years after Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were acquitted of the killing in a case that gripped Italy, Britain and the US.
The court of cassation in Rome had been expected to announce its decision on a prosecution application on Monday, thereby either definitively clearing Seattle-based Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend or confronting the pair with the prospect of a fresh trial. The decision by the court of cassation, which raises the prospect of an extradition tussle between Italy and the US, was welcomed by Kercher's family in Britain but met with incredulity and anger in Seattle, where Knox, now 25, lives.
But, in a sign of the complexity of the long-running case, the court said on Monday night that it would deliver its ruling on Tuesday at 10am local time. Prosecutor general Luigi Riello said that while the court usually gave same-day rulings, it sometimes chose to take more time "in very complex cases". "There are a lot of unanswered questions still," Kercher's older sister, Stephanie, said. "We are very hopeful that it going back to court will help find those answers and find out the truth of what happened that night."
Earlier in the day, the court had heard six hours of arguments from both prosecutors arguing for the case against the American and Italian to be reopened and their defence lawyers insisting that the pair had been rightly cleared by the acquittals in Perugia in late 2011. Kercher, 21, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was found dead in the flat she shared with Knox in the university town of Perugia in November 2007.
Neither Knox, now 25, nor Sollecito, who turns 29 on Tuesday, was in the court to watch the proceedings. The Kercher family decided not to attend, but Sollecito's father, Francesco, was present. Rudy Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was found guilty of sexual assault and murder in October 2008. But, driven by the argument that he did not act alone, prosecutors also pursued their case against Knox and Sollecito, who were eventually sentenced, respectively, to 26 and 25 years in jail. It was after they had spent four years behind bars that they were eventually freed, in 2011, by a court which found, among other things, that DNA evidence used to convict them had been unreliable.
Kercher, a 21-year-old Leeds university student on a year abroad in the historic town of Perugia, was found dead in a pool of blood in her bedroom on 2 November 2007, partially clothed and with her throat slashed. Knox, who was 20 when she was arrested by police in 2007, on Tuesday condemned the court of cassation's decision to allow a fresh appeal, describing the prosecution's case against her as "unfounded and unfair".
In October 2008 Rudy Guede, a young man from the Ivory Coast, was found guilty of sexually assaulting and murdering her, and is currently serving a reduced sentence of 16 years in prison. In December 2009, after a separate trial, Knox and Sollecito were also convicted of the killing and were sentenced, respectively, to 26 and 25 years in jail. "It was painful to receive the news that the Italian supreme court decided to send my case back for revision when the prosecution's theory of my involvement in Meredith's murder has been repeatedly revealed to be completely unfounded and unfair," Knox said.
After four years in prison, the pair were acquitted in a dramatic ruling in October 2011. The court found that DNA evidence used to convict them had been unreliable. Four months later, prosecutors lodged an appeal in which they claimed the verdict contained numerous omissions. She added: "No matter what happens, my family and I will face this continuing legal battle as we always have, confident in the truth and with our heads held high in the face of wrongful accusations and unreasonable adversity."
The court of cassation is also looking at whether Knox's conviction for slandering a bar owner, Patrick Lumumba, should be upheld. Giulia Bongiorno, Sollecito's defence lawyer, said that it was the 29-year-old's birthday and she would have liked to have had better news for him. "Unfortunately we have to continue the battle," she said.
It was not within the court of cassation's remit to base its decision on the presumed guilt or innocence of Knox or Sollecito; its ruling was intended to hinge solely on whether or not the appeal trial against the pair's 2009 convictions had been properly conducted.
"Quashing an acquittal does not imply a belief that the accused are guilty but indicates a desire by the judges of the court of cassation to request further analysis," said Bongiorno. The new proceedings, which will take place in the court of appeal in Florence, are not expected to begin before early next year.
If Knox, who has enrolled at the University of Washington and has recently written her memoirs in a deal reportedly worth $4m, were to have her appeal turned down and her previous conviction upheld definitively on appeal, Italy could request her extradition. It would then be up to the US to decide whether to agree to the move, something some observers say is unlikely. Her presence would not be required at the fresh appeal trial in Florence.
Soon after informing his client of the decision by phone, Carlo Dalla Vedova, Knox's lawyer, said on the steps of the court of cassation on Tuesday: "She thought that the nightmare was over. [But] she's ready to fight."
The specific reasons for the latest ruling in the case will remain unclear until the court releases the judges' motivazioni. But, in their arguments on Monday, prosecutors argued that the Perugia court that acquitted Knox and Sollecito had "lost its bearings" in the case and had erred in numerous ways, including demanding insufficient forensic evidence tests.
"I believe all the elements are there to make sure the final curtain does not drop on this shocking and dreadful crime," said state prosecutor Luigi Riello, chastising what he said was a mass of illogical reasoning and legal violations.
In its dramatic acquittals of the onetime lovers in 2011, the Perugia appeals court found fault with virtually every aspect of the original investigation into Kercher's murder.
The alleged mishandling of the original investigation was returned to by Bongiorno on Monday, who, as Sollecito's father looked on, reminded the judges that "an infinite series of errors" had been made by forensics. A bra clasp found to have a trace of Sollecito's DNA on it which formed a central plank of the prosecution's case, she reiterated, had been bagged no fewer than 47 days after the inquiry began.
But it was with the arguments coming from the other side of the court that the judges eventually sided. Francesco Maresca, lawyer for the Kerchers, lambasted the case behind the acquittals as "absolutely superficial" and said evidence had been ignored. He firmly believed, he added, that "there were more people in that room than Rudy Guede".
In her statement, Knox, said claims against her should now be examined by "an objective investigation and a capable prosecution". "The prosecution responsible for the many discrepancies in their work must be made to answer for them, for Raffaele's sake, my sake, and most especially for the sake of Meredith's family," she said. "Our hearts go out to them."
Meanwhile Stephanie, Meredith's sister, said the family had to "make sure we have done all we can for [Meredith]". "We still have a long journey ahead and we are very grateful for the support of the public and in Italy," she said. "We just want justice for Mez."