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Home / World

Raffaele Sollecito claims his life was 'destroyed' by his legal fight

Daily Mail
26 Jan, 2017 10:31 PM5 mins to read

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Amanda Knox arrived at an Italian appeals court Monday, hoping to be freed. An appeals court in Perugia will decide whether to reverse, reduce or extend her sentence on a 2009 murder conviction.

The Italian student twice convicted then cleared of murdering British student Meredith Kercher with Amanda Knox said today he is a "victim" in a "tragedy that has destroyed my life"

Raffaele Sollecito, 32, claims he has $760,000 of debt and is suing the Italian authorities for compensation and says their "mistakes" mean many still think he is guilty of killing Meredith in 2007.

The 32-year-old also revealed he still talks to his former lover Amanda Knox 'very occasionally', but 'never' about the murder.

And the father of Miss Kercher told the MailOnline he doesn't know why they keep talking about it.

21-year-old Miss Kercher's half-naked body was discovered in a pool of blood in a back room of the house she shared with Knox in Perugia, central Italy.

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The student's throat had been slashed and she had been stabbed 47 times.

Speaking to the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire show, Sollecito said the case was "a tragedy that has destroyed my life".

He said Meredith was the 'first victim' but added: 'There were many victims in this case. Amanda [Knox]'s parents, my parents, all our families... there are many others made by the prosecution's mistakes'.

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Knox and her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were initially found guilty of murder and sentenced to 26 years in jail in 2009.

Amanda Knox attends her appeal hearing at Perugia's Court of Appeal in 2011. Photo / Getty Images
Amanda Knox attends her appeal hearing at Perugia's Court of Appeal in 2011. Photo / Getty Images

However, they were acquitted in 2011 after evidence used against the pair was found to be flawed.

Knox immediately returned to the United States protesting her innocence, but in January 2014, the Italian courts overturned that acquittal and reinstated the guilty verdict.

However, the case ultimately went to the Supreme Court and their conviction was definitively overturned in March 2015.

Discover more

World

Knox reveals inmate tried to seduce her

15 Feb 08:05 PM

Miss Kercher's father, John, 74, said he thinks it's "bizarre" that Sollecito is still talking about the case, despite nine years passing.

Raffaele Sollecito attends the appeal hearing at Perugia's Court of Appeal in 2011. Photo / Getty Images
Raffaele Sollecito attends the appeal hearing at Perugia's Court of Appeal in 2011. Photo / Getty Images

Kercher, from Croydon, South London, said: "I don't want to make further comment. It has been nine years.

"What fascinates me is why they keep going on about it. They've been let free - so why keep going on? It's bizarre."

When asked about Sollecito mentioning he is in debt, Mr Kircher said: 'I think his father paid didn't he? And what about what we've paid out?'

Mr Kercher did not want to make further comment.

Today Sollecito said he was "still facing a lot of trouble, as people don't understand why I've been acquitted.

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"I have to face this kind of society. I have to face anybody that doesn't support me.

"I can talk with hundreds of people and they understand I'm innocent, but the problem is one stupid portrait in the media in a few minutes reaches five million people and I cannot control it. In an instant it can change."

It came days after an Italian court blocked a reopening of the Amanda Knox murder saga by refusing to review the conviction of the man jailed for the 2007 killing of British student Meredith Kercher.

After a brief hearing, Florence's appeals court ruled inadmissible a request from Rudy Guede for an extraordinary review of his case.

The Ivorian man made his application in light of the acquittal of Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito.

Lawyers for Guede, who was convicted after a fast-track trial in 2008, had presented the court with a deposition arguing that the terms of the 2015 acquittals made their client's conviction unsafe.

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Italian newspaper Corriere dell' Umbria reports on the conviction of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito. Photo / Getty Images
Italian newspaper Corriere dell' Umbria reports on the conviction of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito. Photo / Getty Images

But the judge in the case ruled that their was no basis for the case to be reopened and ordered Guede to pay the costs of the hearing.

The ruling means Guede's 16-year sentence for Kercher's murder, imposed after he appealed an initial 30-year jail term, stands, at least for the time being.

A lawyer for Guede was quoted as telling reporters he would consider appealing ruling to Italy's highest appeal court, the Court of Cassation.

A year after the judge in Guede's case said he could not have acted alone, Knox and Sollecito were also convicted of the murder.

But that verdict was overturned on appeal in 2011 and the pair were released after four years in prison.

Another court then ordered a retrial which reinstated the original convictions only for the Court of Cassation to throw out all charges against the pair in March 2015.

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Six months later the court released a written judgment which said the ruling reflected "major flaws" in the police's handling of the investigation, the absence of a "body of evidence" allowing for a safe conviction and the absence of any admissible DNA evidence linking the two to the grisly murder.

Legal experts said at the time that the Knox-Sollecito acquittal was tantamount to saying Guede acted alone, in contradiction of the judge's summing up in his first trial.

Tommaso Pietrocarlo, a member of Guede's defence team, told reporters the Florence court had said there was no contradiction between the two judgments, despite this being "rather obvious," in his view.

In particular, Pietrocarlo said Guede's conviction partly rested on evidence that he had used Sollecito's knife to kill Kercher while the judge who acquitted Knox and her former boyfriend had ruled that it was not the murder weapon.

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