ITALY: American student Amanda Knox and her former Italian lover Raffaele Sollecito set for murder appeal in Perugia court

Record ID: 640848

  • Title: ITALY: American student Amanda Knox and her former Italian lover Raffaele Sollecito set for murder appeal in Perugia court
  • Date: 24th November 2010
  • Summary: PERUGIA, ITALY (FILE - NOVEMBER 21, 2009) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) KERCHER MURDER TRIAL SEEN THROUGH MONITOR
  • Embargoed: 9th December 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy, Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Reuters ID: LVAA3ADS38ZIEPCZHCHQU6S21ZHW
  • Story Text: American student Amanda Knox and her former lover Raffaele Sollecito will begin an appeal of their murder convictions on November 24 in a Perugian courtroom.
    The court sentenced Knox and Sollecito in November 2009 to 26 and 25 years respectively.
    It said in an explanation of its ruling that the murder of 21-year-old British student Meredith Kercher was the result of a sexual assault which spiralled out of control.
    Kercher's partly nude body, with a deep stab wound to the throat, was discovered on November 2, 2007 locked in her blood-splattered bedroom in the house she shared with Knox and two other students in Perugia, a central Italian town which is home to an international university.
    The judges said the murder was the result of "a series of coincidences," starting when the owner of the bar where 22-year-old Knox worked unexpectedly gave her the night off.
    They found Ivorian drifter Rudy Guede trying to force himself on Kercher.
    The judges said Knox and Sollecito helped Guede to pin down the Briton while he sexually assaulted her, and then they stabbed Kercher twice in the throat, killing her.
    Knox's case has attracted huge media attention in Italy and abroad, with Knox's defence questioning DNA and other evidence at the 11-month trial.
    Guede, convicted in a fast-track trial in 2008, had his sentence almost halved to 16 years in December after his defence pleaded a troubled family history and no prior criminal record. Guede, whose DNA was found on Kercher, also says he is innocent.
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