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Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito found guilty of Meredith Kercher's murder
Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito again found guilty of Meredith Kercher's murder
(35 minutes later)
Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito have been found guilty of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher.
Amanda Knox was tonight sensationally declared guilty once again of the murder in 2007 of British student Meredith Kercher, with whom she had shared a flat in Perugia, Italy.
Knox, 26, has been sentenced to 28 years and 6 months, and an extradition verdict was also given for the woman who awaited her fate in the US city of Seattle. Sollecito, 29, received 25 years and has had his passport withheld.
An appeals court in Florence said Knox, 26, and her ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 29, took part in the killing of Ms Kercher, 21, in the latest twist in the tortuous legal process, which will now move on to Italy’s Supreme Court.
Kercher, a 21-year-old Leeds University student at the time, was found with her throat slashed in the bedroom of the house she shared with Knox in Perugia, central Italy in 2007.
Knox was not in court. She returned home to Seattle after the first appeal trial overturned her 2009 conviction. Sollecito will have his passport confiscated, but will not yet return to prison.
The court re-instated the guilty verdict it first gave the pair in 2009, after nearly 12 hours of deliberations in Florence, Tuscany, on Thursday.
Prosecutor Alessandro Crini, who had demanded 26 years on the murder charge for each of the defendants, also asked the court to raise Knox’s sentence on the slander conviction from three to four years because he alleged she accused the wrong man to remove suspicion from herself. This request was denied by the Judges. They handed Knox 28 years and six months and Sollecito a 25-year jail term.
The pair was freed in 2011, but the case was re-opened by the Italian Supreme Court, Rome, in March 2013 after prosecutors launched an appeal, arguing that DNA evidence had been disregarded in the previous trial.
Knox said she was “frightened and saddened by this unjust verdict”. She said: “Having been found innocent before, I expected better from the Italian justice system. The evidence and accusatory theory do not justify a verdict of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Rather, nothing has changed. There has always been a marked lack of evidence. My family and I have suffered greatly from this wrongful persecution.”
While Sollecito was in court on Thursday morning, he did not return for the verdict.
Meredith Kercher, who was murdered in 2007 (AP) One of Sollecito’s lawyers, Luca Maori, condemned the verdict and said the prosecution had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that his client was guilty. “This was a verdict devoid of sense,” he said.
In a statement issued on Thursday after her conviction was upheld, Knox blamed overzealous prosecutors and a "prejudiced and narrow-minded investigation" for what she called a perversion of justice and wrongful conviction.
Ms Kercher’s brother, Lyle, who was in the court for the verdict, said he would not be able to forgive those responsible for his sister’s death. In an interview with Sky News, Mr Kercher said: “I think you’d have to be a very strong-willed – arguably religious – person to find that forgiveness. I think it is so easily forgotten what happened to Meredith. When I read reports even now, I find myself skimming past the paragraphs that refer to what actually happened to her because it is so horrific.”
Meredith Kercher, who was murdered in 2007 (AP) Rudy Guede, a drug dealer from the Ivory Coast, is already serving a 16-year sentence over the death - though the courts have said he did not act alone.
The jury, of two judges and six lay people, took far longer than the expected eight hours to arrive at the verdict, indicating some disagreement.
Prosecutors said that Kercher was the victim of a sex game gone awry, but both Knox and Sollecito claimed they were both innocent and were not in the apartment when Kercher died.
Amanda Knox, pictured here in 2011, was not present in the courtroom for the verdict (Reuters) The original trial in 2009 relied on DNA evidence, confused alibis and Knox’s false accusation against a Congolese bar owner. The pair were convicted and spent four years in prison. In 2011 a Perugia appeals court dismantled the guilty verdict, criticising the “building blocks” of the conviction, including DNA evidence now deemed unreliable. But the Supreme Court ordered the third trial. Experts have said it is unlikely Italy would seek the extradition of Knox until a verdict is finalised in the Supreme Court.
However, they have since alleged that Kercher was murdered as the result of an argument over cleanliness in the apartment in the Italian college city.
The court has also ordered that damages are paid to the family of Ms Kercher.
Speaking outside the court, Knox's lawyer, Luciano Ghirga, said she will launch an appeal against the decision. He added that the telephone line “went dead” when he told his client she was found guilty.
Amanda Knox, pictured here in 2011, was not present in the courtroom for the verdict (Reuters) Mr Ghirga said: “For those that, like me, are convinced that Amanda is innocent, it is a very difficult time.
"We have to respect the verdict but we will challenge them.
"We're very sad at the moment. We will definitely try everything. This is not the final word.
"The road to the next appeal is quite difficult but we are ready for a new battle."
Sollecito's solicitor, Giulia Bongiorno, said she had not spoken to him yet.
She said: ”He was prepared for any outcome. He is totally astonished why the court keeps changing mind in this way.
“The court gives credit to rumours.
"This is not a surprise. They (Knox and Sollecito) have always been considered the murderers."
Miss Kercher's brother Lyle, who was in the court for today's verdict, said he could not forgive those responsible for his sister's death.
In an interview with Sky, Mr Kercher said: "I think you'd have to be a very strong-willed - arguably religious - person to find that forgiveness.
"I think it is so easily forgotten what happened to Meredith.
"When I read reports even now, I find myself skimming past the paragraphs that refer to what actually happened to her because it is so horrific.
"I think anybody would just need to read in detail or know what happened to her to then question themselves - could they ever forgive someone who did that to their sister or daughter?"
