ITALY:TEN MONTHS after the horrific murder of English exchange student Meredith Kercher, preliminary hearings behind closed doors began yesterday in Perugia, writes Paddy Agnewin Rome.
These hearings are to determine if a case can proceed against American Amanda Knox (21), her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito (24) and Rudy Hermann Guede (21), originally from the Ivory Coast. It is expected that all three will be charged with murder, sexual violence and theft in relation to the grizzly death in Perugia of Ms Kercher (22) on November 1st last year.
When police came knocking on November 2nd last at Via della Pergola, the house that Ms Kercher shared with seven others, they were looking for the owner of two mobile phones that had been handed in to the police station. When they broke down the door, they were confronted with a murder scene. Ms Kercher's semi-naked body lay under a duvet on her bed. She was covered in bruises and her throat had been cut.
Within days, police had arrested Ms Knox, Mr Sollecito and Congolese bar owner Patrick Lumumba. Ms Knox had been one of those to share the house with Ms Kercher.
Mr Sollecito had been her boyfriend while Mr Lumumba had been accused of the murder by Ms Knox. Mr Lumumba, who was later released without charge and who is no longer under investigation, was one of those in court yesterday seeking damages against Ms Knox for defamation.
Mr Lumumba tried to reopen his bar but lack of custom subsequently forced him to close it.
A month later, Mr Guede was arrested in Germany. Police had found traces of his DNA in the Perugia house and his fingerprints had been found on Ms Kercher's body. Mr Guede admitted to having been in the flat with Ms Kercher on the night of the murder, admitted to having flirted with her but denied he had murdered her.
Instead, he claims he was in the toilet when he heard her screaming. He came out to find her lying on the ground and to be confronted by a man he did not know, wielding a knife. In later testimony, Mr Guede suggested that this man might be Mr Sollecito, aided and abetted by Ms Knox.
Given that Mr Guede is likely to testify against the other two defendants, his lawyers will request that the hearing against him be held as a separate, fast-track process since they fear that Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito will form a pact against him.
If the preliminary hearing judge grants this request, then his trial will be held next month and only then will Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito stand trial in a separate case.
Unlike Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito, who have contradicted themselves and changed their evidence on several occasions, Mr Guede has basically stuck to the same story. He was there, but he did not kill and he ran away to Germany in terror. In contrast, Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito claim that inconsistencies in their evidence was due both to the fact that they had smoked a lot of hashish of the day of Ms Kercher's death and to the harshness of the police interrogation.
The hearing continues today.