Friday, January 31, 2014

Kercher convict found near border

Kercher murder: Sollecito found near Austria border

Lyle Kercher: "Losing someone close to you in horrific circumstances is horrendous"

Italian police have found Raffaele Sollecito near the Austrian border after a court reinstated his guilty verdict for the murder of Briton Meredith Kercher in 2007.

Sollecito's passport was confiscated but his lawyer said his client had never thought of fleeing.

Sollecito was given 25 years and his US ex-girlfriend Amanda Knox 28 years and six months in Thursday's ruling.

The Kercher family lawyer said that justice had been done.

Miss Kercher, 21, from Coulsdon in south London, was stabbed to death in the flat she shared with Knox in the college city of Perugia.

'Flight danger'

The travel ban was part of the verdict handed down on Sollecito by the court in Florence on Thursday.

The court noted that there was a "real and actual the danger that Sollecito could escape Italian justice".

Sollecito is free to move within Italy until the verdict is confirmed, normally the task of the supreme Court of Cassation.

Lawyers for both Knox, who is in the United States, and Sollecito have said they will appeal to the Court of Cassation.

Sollecito had been in the courtroom in Florence earlier in the day on Thursday but was not there for the ruling.

His lawyer, Luca Maori, said his client had heard the verdict on TV and looked "annihilated".

Police reportedly found Sollecito with his girlfriend in a hotel in Venzone, about 40km (24 miles) from the border, in the early hours of Friday.

Raffaele Sollecito, Florence, 30 Jan Sollecito was in the Florence courtroom early on Thursday but left before the verdict
Amanda Knox arrives for an interview with Good Morning America on ABC in New York on 31 Jan Amanda Knox arrives for an interview with Good Morning America on ABC in New York on Friday
Lyle Kercher, 31 Jan Miss Kercher's brother, Lyle, says he believes extradition is appropriate where there is a guilty verdict

Venzone is 322km from Florence.

A police statement read: "Raffaele Sollecito... was notified of the cautionary measures of the travel ban and the confiscation of his passport."

He was taken voluntarily to a police station in Udine.

Mr Maori told the Ansa news agency that his client had "never thought of fleeing and had given up his passport spontaneously".

Mr Maori said his client was "stressed" on Thursday and had travelled to the Friuli area because his girlfriend lived there.

Ansa reported that investigators were considering whether Sollecito had shown the intention of fleeing, and if so could keep him in protective custody.

'This is wrong'

Amanda Knox appeared on ABC's Good Morning America programme in New York on Friday.

She said: "This has really hit me like a train. I did not expect this to happen."

Appearing on TV, Amanda Knox said she would "never go willingly back"

Knox, her voice regularly breaking, said she had listened as the judge read the verdict.

"I couldn't believe what I was hearing," she said, adding that her first reaction was: "No, this is wrong."

She added: "I will never go willingly back... I'm going to fight this to the very end."

Knox said Sollecito was "vulnerable", adding: "I don't know what I would do if they imprisoned him. It's maddening."

Knox and Sollecito were jailed for Miss Kercher's murder in 2009 but the verdicts were overturned in 2011 and the pair were freed.

However, the acquittals were themselves overturned last year by the Court of Cassation, which returned the case to the Florence court.

The court on Thursday made no requests for limits on Knox's movements.

Legal experts say it is unlikely Italy will request Knox's extradition until the verdict is confirmed.

They say that if Italy puts in a request, the US would have to decide whether the case fell under their mutual extradition treaty. Political considerations could also come into play, they say.

In a news conference on Friday, Miss Kercher's brother, Lyle, said he believed extradition would be appropriate "if someone has been found guilty and convicted of a murder, and if an extradition law exists between those two countries".

Meredith's sister, Stephanie, said: "I think we are still on a journey for the truth and it may be the fact that we don't ever really know what happened that night."


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