Italian prosecutors in the retrial of Amanda Knox, the former U.S. student acquitted in 2011 in the murder of her roommate, asked a judge on Tuesday to hand down a 30-year prison sentence.
In 2011, Knox and her ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were acquitted on appeal after serving four years in prison for the 2007 murder of British student Miranda Kercher, but the case was reopened earlier this year after the supreme court overturned the ruling. The prosecutors, who said Knox’s punishment should be more severe because she initially deflected blame in Kercher’s death, also asked the judge to imprison Sollecito for 26 years.
A verdict in the retrial is expected in January. Knox, like Sollecito, has always claimed her innocence and is back in the U.S., where experts say it’s unlikely she will be extradited if convicted and if that ruling is upheld in an appeal. Rudy Guede, a local thief and drug dealer, was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in prison for the murder, which rocked the university town of Perugia.
[AFP]