Amanda Knox Cries And Addresses Court In Italian To Plead Her Innocence At The Appeals Trial For Her 2009 Murder Conviction Of Roommate Meredith Kercher

Knox’s Italian ex-boo is also hoping to be freed.

Raffaele Sollecito, who is serving 25 years for his part in Meredith’s killing, also stood up in court this morning and made his final plea

Knox’s former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito arriving for the hearing this morning. He is serving 25 years for his part in Meredith Kercher’s murder and also made his final plea today

Experienced court watchers who have been covering the trial said it was a powerful delivery and much better than the one she had made at her original trial two years ago when she confused the court by saying she did not want the ‘mask of an assassin forced upon me’.

Crucially for her this time she also said that she did not kill Meredith – something she failed to do at her original trial and as she spoke her parents, Curt Knox and Edda Mellas, were in tears.

As she spoke there was complete silence in court and the packed chamber listened intently to Knox who added: ‘I had never faced such tragedy, suffering, I didn’t know how to tackle it, how to interpret it.

‘When we learnt Meredith was dead, we just could not believe it. How was this possible ?

‘Then I felt scared. A person who I was sharing my life with, who had the bedroom next to me, she was killed in our house and if I was there that night I could have been killed.

‘I wasn’t there. I was at Raffaele’s.’

She then criticized the police who had questioned her that night. She said: ‘I had a sense of duty towards justice, the authorities who I put my trust in.

‘They were there to find the guilty and to protect us. I put my faith in them absolutely.

‘I made myself available for them in those days but I was betrayed – the night of 5/6 November I was pressured, stressed and manipulated.’

Knox has already told the court how she was questioned for 14 hours without a lawyer or an interpreter and was even cuffed twice around the back of the head by police as they demanded answers from her.

Her version of the events that evening is crucial to the appeal as prosecutors say she admitted being on the scene and had also provided – wrongly – the name of bar man Patrick Lumumba who was wrongly arrested and held in jail for two weeks before being freed.

Knox also insisted that despite prosecution claims she did not know Rudy Guede who has already been convicted of the murder and added: ‘I have never done what they say I have done, it is not as they say it was.’

She went on to dismiss the prosecution – and claims from Meredith’s friends – that the two did not get on and said: ‘I had a good relationship with all my flatmates. I was messy, carefree but we had a good relationship we were all ready to help each other.

‘I shared my life with Meredith, we had a friendship, she was worried for me when I went to work, she was always gentle with me.

Meredith was killed and I have always wanted justice for her. I am not fleeing from the truth and have never fled. I insist on the truth. I insist after four desperate years for our innocence because it is true. It deserves to be recognized.

‘I want to go home. I want to return to my life, I don’t want to be punished and deprived of my life, future for something I have not done because I am innocent, Raffaele is also innocent.

‘We deserve our freedom. We have never done anything not to deserve it.’

Earlier in his declaration Sollecito had spoken and had told the court: ‘I have so much to say but I don’t think I have enough time. I just want to tell the court how much I have been suffering.

‘I just want to say i never hurt any one, never in my life,’ adding: ‘I hoped that this would have all been cleared in a short time – instead it did not happen this way.’

‘Amanda and I have been in jail for 1,400 days. These 1,400 days have been spent 20 hours a day in a space 2.5m by 3m – it’s difficult to imagine that situation.’

Then turning to the night of Meredith’s murder Sollecito said: ‘I was in a beautiful situation. I was about to hand in my dissertation for my final degree.

‘During that period I met Amanda Knox, she was beautiful, sunny, lively and sweet and that was supposed to be our first weekend together.’

‘For me there is no proof that she was involved in this terrible murder and if that is the case then she should be freed – I believe she is innocent and she should be cleared’

Painting a romantic picture he said: ‘We were free that night. Our only aim that night was to have an evening of tenderness and cuddles. The other descriptions just did not happen. This was our simple desire.’

While Amanda Knox’s parents were present for the appeal, so was the family of Meredith Kercher. Her sister Stephanie spoke to the media about how difficult it’s been to keep her memory alive.

After Knox and Sollecito had addressed the court judge Hellman also spoke sternly to the packed chamber and said: ‘We will now retire but I to ask you to reflect on something. This is a court room and not a football match there is no room for supporting when the verdict is read.

‘Lets remember that a beautiful girl was murderered and the lives of two other young people are in the balance. So I say again when the sentence is read, respect and silence. Having said that we will now retire and the verdict will not be before 8pm local.’

The final day of the 10-month appeal trial began with Knox’s lawyer, Luciano Ghirga, making his final rebuttal, stressing how the investigation had been carried out in a climate of ‘hostility’ towards his client.

Knox, 24, is serving 26 years for the brutal murder of British student Meredith Kercher, 21.

Knox was jailed in 2009 for Meredith’s murder, while the American’s former boyfriend computer studies graduate Raffaele Sollecito, 27, was given 25 years although both have denied any involvement in the crime.

Their appeal began ten months ago and has heard from several witnesses but the most damning revelations have come from two court appointed independent experts who have poured scorn on the original police forensic investigation of the crime scene.

Key to the original trial were two bits of evidence – a 30cm kitchen knife found in Sollecito’s kitchen on which DNA from Knox was said to be on the handle while that of Meredith’s was on the blade and a bloodied clasp from Meredith’s bra which was said to have genetic material from Sollecito on it.

However the report concluded that the DNA on the knife from Meredith was so low that it should not be used as evidence while the bra clasp evidence was also dismissed after the experts concluded that it was highly possible it had been contaminated as it had not been bagged for six weeks and was handled by forensic officers using dirty gloves and their hands instead of tweezers.

Meredith, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was in Perugia as part of her Leeds University course and had only been in Italy for two months before she was brutally murdered and Knox and Sollecito were jailed in December 2009.

A third defendant, small-time drug dealer Rudy Guede, an immigrant from the Ivory Coast, was also jailed in connection with the brutal killing.

He was handed a 30-year sentence for murder and sexual violence following a fast-track trial in October 2008 which was later cut to 16 years.

After four years in prison, this has been a long time coming for Amanda and Raffaele.

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