Amanda Knox's former lover proclaims innocence at murder re-trial

[umbertino]

An emotional Raffaele Sollecito says his life has been ruined by the false accusation of murdering British student Meredith Kercher

 

By Nick Squires, Florence

1:28PM GMT 06 Nov 2013

 

 

The former boyfriend of Amanda Knox gave an impassioned speech in a court in Florence on Wednesday, denying that the pair murdered Meredith Kercher and begging the jury to give him his life back.

Raffaele Sollecito choked up towards the end of the 15-minute address, saying that he had been unjustly portrayed as “a ruthless assassin” and that his life had been a “nightmare” ever since he and Miss Knox were arrested in the days after Miss Kercher’s body was found in the cottage she shared with the American in Perugia, Umbria, in November 2007.

 

"I have been described as a ruthless killer but I am nothing of the sort," said Mr Sollecito.

The accusations levelled against them were “absurd”, he said during his first appearance at the appeals trial.

 

Wearing khaki trousers and a brown pullover, the 29-year-old IT graduate said the four years he spent in prison after being convicted of the murder and sexual assault of the Leeds University student was an experience that he would not wish “on anyone in the world”.

 

 

He said he had been very “reserved” when he met Miss Knox at a classical musical contest in Perugia just 10 days before the murder, and that she was his first true love.

“In Perugia I dedicated myself to my studies, which were very tough, but in the meantime I met Amanda. She was my first true love – I started rather late,” Mr Sollecito said, addressing the judge and jury from the witness stand and gesticulating with his hands.

 

Sollecito had been on an extended holiday in the Dominican Republic, which has no extradition agreement with Italy, and his attendance had been uncertain.

"He has come to show that he is not running away," Sollecito's lawyer Luca Maori said before the start of the hearing.

 

Sollecito said he had been in the Caribbean to "get away from the spotlight".

"I am the victim of a crazy persecution that for me has no logic and seems like an unimaginable nightmare. If this story was not real, it would be difficult to believe," he said, adding: "I don't really have a life any more."

 

He said he had grown up in a respectable family in Bari, in southern Italy, and that he had never been in trouble with the law before his arrest for the murder of Miss Kercher, 21, from Coulsdon, Surrey.

He admitted to smoking marijuana on occasion but said he had never partied “to excess” and was living a “quiet and normal life” when the murder happened.

The only fault that he and Miss Knox could be accused of was failing to comprehend the seriousness of the situation they found themselves in, before and after they were arrested six years ago.

 

 

They had been living in a “little fairy tale”, he told the court. “I didn’t take things seriously enough at the start,” said the computer studies graduate, who flew back to Italy for the hearing from the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean, where he was on holiday for several weeks at the invitation of “a very kind friend”.

 

Prosecutors allege that Mr Sollecito and Miss Knox, together with Rudy Guede, a small-time drug dealer in Perugia, subjected Miss Kercher to a frenzied assault in her bedroom on the night of Nov 1, 2007, during a group sex game that spun out of control.

 

But Mr Sollecito told the court that he did not even know Mr Guede, who is serving 16 years in jail after being convicted of the crime in a separate, fast-track trial, and that he barely knew Miss Kercher. “I never knew Guede. We had two very different lives,” he said.

 

Between their arrests in Nov 2007 and their acquittal by an appeals court in Perugia in 2011, he and Miss Knox spent four years in jail.

 

The supreme court overturned that acquittal earlier this year, sending the case back to another appeals court for a retrial, which has so far focused on re-examining some of the DNA evidence in the case.

 

A third person, Ivory Coast-born Rudy Guede, is serving a 16-year sentence in prison for the murder but prosecutors say the evidence shows that he could not have been the only one to have carried out the killing.

 

“I was thrown into a maximum security prison. I wouldn’t wish on anyone in the world the experience that I had to go through,” said Sollecito. “It was a nightmare that went beyond any imagination.”

He had been convicted on the basis of deeply flawed DNA evidence, he told the court. There was not “the slightest foundation” to think he was guilty.

“My life has changed completely because of this,” he said, on the verge of tears. He had hoped to forge a career in information technology but no company wanted to give him a job.

 

 

Spending six years under intense media scrutiny had been extremely hard. “My life has been judged by everyone, even the most banal, ordinary things.”

 

He asked the judge and jury to find him innocent and to restore some normality to his life “because at the moment I don’t have a life.”

 

The trial was adjourned until Nov 25. A verdict is expected in January. Miss Knox is not expected to attend.

 

 

 

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/10430360/Amanda-Knoxs-former-lover-proclaims-innocence-at-murder-re-trial.html

 

 

 

[millionaire in training]

This case has been so exhausting for them as well as the rest of the world watching. I do believe that they are both innocent. But when will the nightmare stop?

[umbertino]

This case has been so exhausting for them as well as the rest of the world watching. I do believe that they are both innocent. But when will the nightmare stop?

MIT...This a very complicated case to begin with.......I still after all these years ( 6) am not sure what really happened in that house.....Only the Ivorian guy so far has been put in Jail....Hmmmmm.

 

 

 Sollecito's father is an anatomo-pathologist working also for  the city of Bari Attorney's Office, if I'm not mistaken and his family is wealthy.....Might mean nothing or might mean something.

Edited November 7, 2013 by umbertino

[dog53]

Wrong place at the wrong time.

karma or fate whatever you want to call it can be a 

beeatch .

[umbertino]

Wrong place at the wrong time.

karma or fate whatever you want to call it can be a 

beeatch .

Indeed.

[skitealwedrop]

The Italian court system is clearly flawed. The term "double jeopardy" comes to my mind in this case. I wish the best for Amanda and Rafffele.

[umbertino]

The Italian court system is clearly flawed. The term "double jeopardy" comes to my mind in this case. I wish the best for Amanda and Rafffele.

Flawed is to put it mildly.

Edited November 8, 2013 by umbertino