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Knox acquitted of murder

Italy’s highest court has overturned the conviction of American Amanda Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher.

The decision, handed down in the Court of Cassation in Rome, brings to a sensational end an eight-year legal drama.

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The judges ruled Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito did not commit murder.

Knox, 27, and Sollecito, 30, have maintained their innocence during a process which saw them first convicted in 2009.

They were acquitted in 2011 on appeal, after which Ms Knox returned to her home town of Seattle.

In 2013, Italy’s Supreme Court overturned the acquittals and a Florence appeals court convicted the pair again last year for the 2007 killing of Ms Kercher.

The prosecution asked for jail sentences of 28 years and 3 months for Ms Knox and 24 years and nine months for Mr Sollecito, shaving three months off their original sentence requests due to the statute of limitation.

Kercher murder case rivets global audience

The case generated intense media attention after Ms Kercher’s half-naked body was found in the apartment she shared with Ms Knox in the university town of Perugia.

The 21-year-old British exchange student died after being stabbed 47 times and having her throat slashed.

Ivory Coast-born drifter Rudy Guede was jailed for Ms Kercher’s murder, but the judge in his trial ruled that he could not have acted alone.

Ms Knox left Italy immediately after her appeal victory and has vowed she will have to be dragged back kicking and screaming.

Many in the US see her as an innocent abroad who was a victim of an unreliable judicial system.

Prosecutors believe Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito fatally slashed Ms Kercher while Guede held her down.

They have accused Ms Knox of repeatedly changing her story about what happened on the night of the murder, starting with an attempt to pin the blame on the manager of a bar she sometimes worked at.

Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito initially claimed they smoked marijuana and slept together at another apartment on the night of the crime.

But Mr Sollecito later admitted he could not be sure if Ms Knox was with him throughout that time.

The Italian’s lawyers wanted his case to be treated independently of Ms Knox’s.

Reuters/AFP

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