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Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito guilty of murdering British student Meredith Kercher in retrial

Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox have had guilty verdicts reinstated against them

Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox were acquitted in 2011 of Meredith Kercher's murder.

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Guilty verdicts against Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher have been reinstated by an Italian court.

Knox, 26, was sentenced to 28 years and six months in jail while Sollecito was handed a 25-year jail term.

Knox, who has always maintained her innocence, is currently living in the US.

She says she is frightened and saddened by the "unjust" verdict, saying a "prejudiced and narrow-minded investigation" had led to a "perversion of justice" and her wrongful conviction.

"Having been found innocent before, I expected better from the Italian justice system," she said in a statement in Seattle.


Knox would have to be extradited to serve the sentence.

However, any extradition order would have to wait until the convictions are final, and Knox's lawyer in Italy says she will appeal the verdict.

Sollecito will also appeal guilty verdict

Sollecito is free, pending a definitive confirmation of the verdict by the court, but cannot travel out of Italy.

Sollecito's lawyer confirmed that her client would appeal to Italy's highest court, and Knox's lawyer said he was "stunned".

For Kercher's family, who pushed to have the appeal verdict overturned, the reaction was equally raw.

"We didn't know what to expect. We are still in shock," Meredith's sister Stephanie Kercher said after the ruling was read.

Ivory Coast-born Rudy Guede is already serving a 16-year sentence for the murder.


Her body was discovered half-naked with more than 40 wounds and her throat had been slashed.

Investigators quickly pointed to Knox and Sollecito, 29, as suspects, building a narrative that the two killed Kercher in a sex game gone awry.

Both were convicted in an initial trial and spent four years in prison.

They were cleared on appeal in 2011, but Italy's highest court last year quashed that verdict due to "inconsistencies" and ordered a repeat of the appeal trial.

The retrial focused on a re-examination of DNA evidence, with new DNA tests ordered on the knife that prosecutors say was used to kill Kercher.


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