Courtroom confrontation
June 27, 2011
The murder trial of 23-year-old American Amanda Knox took a new twist Monday when her co-accused told an Italian court that Knox and her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were solely responsible for the killing of British student Meredith Kercher in 2007.
Ivory Coast national Rudy Guede, who was tried separately and sentenced to 16 years in prison for Kercher's murder, told the appeal trial in Perugia: "This splendid, marvelous girl [Kercher] was killed by Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox."
"I've always believed this. I've always said who was there in that house on that cursed night," Guede said in a letter read out by prosecutors as he sat in the witness box.
Sollecito and Knox are appealing sentences handed down in 2009 of 25 and 26 years, respectively, for their alleged part in the murder of 21-year-old Kercher, who had been studying in Italy at the time.
Gruesome crime
Kercher was found semi-naked in a pool of blood in the apartment she shared with Knox in the university city of Perugia. Prosecutors said Kercher was sexually assaulted and killed in what was likely a drug-fueled attack by Sollecito, Knox and Guede. All three have proclaimed their innocence.
Knox told the court after Guede's testimony that the only time "Rudy Guede, Raffaele and I were in the same space has been in court. I'm shocked and anguished. He knows we weren't there and have nothing to do with it."
Sollecito also said that Guede "always talks about a shadow that could be me and a voice that could be Amanda's. We've been fighting shadows for four years. Our lives have been destroyed in a subtle and absurd way."
Guede has admitted to being in the house Kercher and Knox shared at the time of the murder but maintains he did not take part in the killing, which has attracted widespread international media attention.
Author: Darren Mara (AFP, dpa)
Editor: Michael Lawton