The case received much media attention in Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Tearful Amanda Knox today insisted she was innocent of the murder of Meredith Kercher and that an "enormous mistake" was being made by keeping her in jail at the start of her appeal hearing.
Knox, 23, broke down several times as she addressed the court for almost twenty minutes in an emotional and quivering voice, as she stressed she had nothing to do with Meredith's brutal murder.
The American also dismissed the prosecution's view of her saying she was not the "dangerous, diabolical, jealous and uncaring" person she had been described as at her original trial, telling the court: "That girl is not me."
Knox also expressed her sympathy towards Meredith's heartbroken family and friends and said: "I am very sorry that Meredith is no longer here.
"What you are going through and what Meredith went through is unacceptable and incomprehensible. I don't know how you must feel, your suffering over a lost life."
As she spoke a dramatic silence fell over the court and her lawyers Carlo Della Vedova and Luciano Ghirga comforted her, while Knox's friend Madison Paxton who was in court also cried.
Meredith was found semi naked and with her throat cut in the bedroom of the house that she shared with Knox, the victim, said the prosecution, of a brutal sex attack made to look like a botched break-in.
Knox was jailed last December for 26 years for the murder and sexual assault, while her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 25, was given 25 years.
Both deny the charges and are appealing against their conviction.
Rudy Hermann Guede was aged 20 at the time of the murder. Originally from Côte d'Ivoire, he had come to Perugia at the age of five with his father,[12] who worked as a labourer in the 1990s. At the age of 16, when his father left Italy, Guede was informally adopted by the family of a local businessman. Guede had acquired joint Italian nationality and sporadically studied accounting and hotelkeeping. He also played basketball for the Perugia youth team in the 2004–2005 season. He often stayed with his aunt who lived in Lecco, near Milan, and sometimes worked in Milan bars, returning occasionally to Perugia. Guede had no criminal record at the time of the murder.
As she spoke a dramatic silence fell over the court and her lawyers Carlo Della Vedova and Luciano Ghirga comforted her, while Knox's friend Madison Paxton who was in court also cried.
Meredith was found semi naked and with her throat cut in the bedroom of the house that she shared with Knox, the victim, said the prosecution, of a brutal sex attack made to look like a botched break-in.
Knox was jailed last December for 26 years for the murder and sexual assault, while her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 25, was given 25 years.
Both deny the charges and are appealing against their conviction.
Rudy Hermann Guede was aged 20 at the time of the murder. Originally from Côte d'Ivoire, he had come to Perugia at the age of five with his father,[12] who worked as a labourer in the 1990s. At the age of 16, when his father left Italy, Guede was informally adopted by the family of a local businessman. Guede had acquired joint Italian nationality and sporadically studied accounting and hotelkeeping. He also played basketball for the Perugia youth team in the 2004–2005 season. He often stayed with his aunt who lived in Lecco, near Milan, and sometimes worked in Milan bars, returning occasionally to Perugia. Guede had no criminal record at the time of the murder.
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