Court urged to re-convict Knox
An Italian appeals court has been urged to re-convict Amanda Knox for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher and undo the alleged mistakes of the hearing that freed her.
Prosecutor Alessandro Crini said Italy’s highest court had “razed to the ground” a previous court’s 2011 decision to throw out the guilty verdicts by casting doubt on the logic that freed Knox and co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito.
Mr Crini said the earlier court had “pulverised the elements”, separating pieces of evidence that needed to be seen together to get a full picture of the crime.
Miss Kercher was killed in the apartment she shared with Knox in Perugia in 2007. Knox and Sollecito were convicted in 2009 of killing her.
They were sentenced to 26 years and 25 years in jail, respectively. The two were freed on appeal in 2011.
American Knox, who spent four years in jail, did not return to Italy for the third trial.
Both denied any involvement, saying they were not in the apartment at the time. A third defendant, Ivory Coast-born Rudy Guede, was convicted in a separate trial of sexually assaulting and stabbing Miss Kercher. His 16-year sentence, reduced in appeal from an initial 30-year sentence, was upheld by Italy’s highest court in 2010.
Sollecito was in court for the latest hearing, listening intently as Mr Crini claimed that his alibi that he was working at his computer at the time of the murder was false, citing an expert opinion.
Outside the court he said the prosecutor’s case was “uncertain”.
“After all of this time,” he said, “I just continue to confront a situation of repeated accusations that have no foundation in reality or likelihood.”
