14 DAY TRIAL // Raffaele Sollecito is facing serious time behind bars for the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher and, with the appeal to the guilty verdict now underway, his attorney is officially trying a new approach to the case, by having him distance himself from his ex-lover Amanda Knox, who was also found guilty in the same case.
Knox and Sollecito were lovers for a very short time in 2007, when she was in Italy to complete her studies, and when Kercher, a British student, was killed. Both were arrested and charged with her murder, with the prosecution arguing that she was killed because she had refused to take part in relations with them and another man, who is currently in jail on the same charges.
The two were imprisoned for 4 years in Italy, were acquitted afterwards and then, just when they thought the ordeal was over, were retrialed by the Italian Supreme Court and found guilty. They both appealed the decision, but Sollecito is in bigger trouble because, unlike Amanda who is in the US, he is in Italy.
In other words, if the appeal doesn’t go in his favor, he’s going to prison for 21 years, because he’s already served 4 of the 25 included in the sentence. To make sure this doesn’t happen, his attorney is now telling the press and the Italian court that they must regard his case separately from Amanda’s.
So, if Amanda appears or is proven guilty, the same verdict shouldn’t automatically apply to Sollecito.
“He stands by his testimony regarding the events of that night and the next day, but he needs for the Italian courts to understand that any evidence against Amanda is not applicable to him. Yes, he is distancing himself from Amanda’s case, because he’s facing 25 years in jail and he’s in Italy, and there’s not a scintilla of evidence against him,” his American attorney tells People.
“It’s imperative that the Italian courts consider Raffaele’s case separate from Amanda’s case. By necessity, he has to distance himself and his case from Amanda and her case. The facts and the evidence with regard to each of them is entirely different,” Sollecito’s Italian attorney adds for Reuters.
This is exactly what Sollecito himself has also been telling the media in a recent interview, highlighting that Knox acted in a very “bizarre” fashion on that fateful day, in the hours before Meredith’s body was found. He’s also been saying that the prosecution has no evidence against him and “nothing very strong” against Knox.
This is a sharp contrast from his previous stance, when he would always speak on both his and Amanda’s behalf in affirming their innocence.