'We need each other... I really want to see her': Foxy Knoxy's Italian lover breaks his silence to reveal their 'four years in circle of hell' 
 
 Raffaele Sollecito said the pair speak to each other on the phone every day to 'try and understand what happened' 
 
 
 
 He is already planning a trip to Seattle to see his former girlfriend 
 
 He says: 'I really want to see her again and look into her eyes' 
 
 Freed Amanda Knox is in regular contact with her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, he has revealed in an interview. 
 
 The couple were sensationally cleared of murdering and sexually assaulting student Meredith Kercher, 21, who was found semi-naked and with her throat cut in her bedroom of the house she shared with Knox, 24. 
 
 She and Sollecito, 27, had been seeing each other for a week before the brutal murder and initially they had been sentenced to 26 and 25 years respectively but they were released on appeal earlier this month. 
 
 Contact: Amanda Knox, pictured in Seattle last week, is in regular contact with her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, left, he has revealed in an interview. He is planning to visit her in Seattle before Christmas 
 
 
 
 Breaking his silence for the first time in an interview with glossy Italian weekly Oggi, computer studies graduate Sollecito said: 'We need each other - we speak to each other on the phone and write to each other every day.' 
 
 
 
 Then, speaking of his invitation to visit Knox in her hometown of Seattle, Sollecito added: 'I will certainly go and see Amanda. She asked me over and I accepted with pleasure and there is no saying I will wait until Christmas. 
 
 'I could go earlier - I could go at any moment. I really want to see her again, to speak with her and look into her eyes. 
 
 Knox and Sollecito were photographed kissing shortly after the death of Meredith Kercher 
 
 'We need to speak and write to each other to try and understand what happened to us and to look forward to a future that appeared broken forever but instead we can still build on. 
 
 'We have so many things to say to each other. We spent four years in a circle of hell, we suffered unspeakably and it ruined our lives.' 
 
 Knox has kept a low profile since she was freed and is said to be negotiating a money-spinning TV interview deal with an American TV network which could make her $1 million - with the potential of earning up to ten times that amount as well. 
 
 Since returning to Seattle she has been seen out and about with friends but generally keeping a low profile and spending time with her family. 
 
 
 
 The couple pictured in 2007. Sollecito said: 'We have so many things to say to each other. We spent four years in a circle of hell, we suffered unspeakably and it ruined our lives.' 
 
 She was pictured out in downtown Seattle earlier this month with best friend Madison Paxton, who stayed close to her while she was in prison, and days earlier taking a drive with her step-father Chris Mellas. 
 
 
 
 She wrote in prison of how she longed to see her former boyfriend, David Johnsrud, and he was one of the first to pay her a visit on her return, although her father Curt stressed their relationship was now one simply of ‘friendship’. 
 
 Asked how his daughter had changed since she was jailed, Mr Knox said in an interview earlier this month that she was little different, other than occasionally slipping into speaking Italian and being less trusting of authority after her experience with Italian police. ‘It’s almost like she hasn’t lost a step with the family, which is nice to see,’ he said. 
 
 
 
 Freed: Knox addresses supporters and the media at Seattle airport supported by her mother Edda Mellas following her sensational release from prison 
 
 He said his daughter had to remain largely indoors for the moment, describing it as ‘a different version of jail’ but said she had at least been able to lie down in the grass – something she had longed for while in prison. 
 
 Mr Knox also revealed his daughter was being shadowed by a bodyguard and the family has been inundated with hate mail and threatening phone calls. 
 
 Knox and Sollecito, from Bisceglie near Bari, were originally found guilty in 2009 of the murder which had taken two years previously in the Italian hilltop town of Perugia. 
 
 However the appeal heard how the original evidence used to convict them was flawed and contaminated and they were freed after an independent forensic report ordered by the judge condemned the forensic investigation. 
 
 Jailed: Ivory Coast drifter Rudy Guede, 24, (left) was convicted of the murder and sexual assault of Meredith Kercher (right) after a fast-track trial in 2008 
 
 Key to the case was a 30cm kitchen knife found in Sollecito's apartment and on which was said to be DNA from Knox on the handle and that of Meredith on the blade. 
 
 But the report said the amount on the knife was so low is should not be used to convict Knox - although they confirmed it was her DNA on the handle but she argued she had used it to cook with. 
 
 DNA from Sollecito which was found on Meredith's bloodied bra clasp was also dismissed as it emerged it had been left in the murder scene for six weeks before being collected and leaving it open to contamination. 
 
 Prosecutors in Perugia have said they will appeal the decision but they will have to wait until the judge's written ruling on the verdict is published sometime in the New Year. 
 
 Meredith from Coulsdon, Surrey, was a Leeds University student and was in Perugia for her degree course and she had only been in Italy for two months before she was murdered in November 2007. 
 
 Ivory Coast drifter Rudy Guede, 24, was convicted of murder and sexual assault after a fast track trial in 2008 and originally sentenced to 30 years but this was later reduced to 16 on appeal. ||||| Amanda Knox's family has asked Raffaele Sollecito — her former boyfriend who was also cleared of the murder of Meredith Kercher — to come to her home town of Seattle, according to a report Thursday. 
 
 The Times newspaper, of the U.K., said that Sollecito's father, Francesco, spoke to reporters outside the house in the Italian town of Bisceglie, near Bari, where his son is currently staying after being released from four years in prison. 
 
 "We didn't manage to speak to Amanda. Raffaele didn't manage even by telephone. After the court ruling, we went in different directions, but through my daughter I learned that Amanda's stepfather [Chris Mellas] invited us to Seattle," he said, according to the paper (which operates behind a paywall). "At this time, we have nothing planned." 
 
 Raffaele Sollecito spoke briefly to Italy's ANSA news agency by phone after his release, The Times said. 
 
 "Amanda? Maybe I'll see her again, but now I only want to be with my family," he reportedly said. 
 
 Francesco Sollecito said his son appeared to have been "reborn," The Times said. "He's like a baby growing up that has to learn to get used to life," he told the reporters. 
 
 He said that he had attempted to speak to the Kercher family after the verdict that freed his son and Knox, but their lawyer intercepted him. 
 
 "I realized it was too soon," he said, according to The Times. "I hope that when they have digested the ruling, I will be able to have a meeting with the family of poor Meredith so they can understand that Amanda and Raffaele had nothing to do with this horrible death." 
 
 Sollecito read a statement by his son, in which he claimed police had been violent toward him after he was arrested, The Independent newspaper reported. 
 
 "I thought that I didn't have anything to worry about because they would look after me as my father had always told me they would," he said. "I certainly couldn't have imagined that rather than protect me the police would act with violence and coercion." 
 
 What next for Knox? 
 
 Meanwhile, there was growing speculation about what Knox will do next. 
 
 The Seattle Post-intelligencer reported that local TV stations have pledged to stay away from the homes of Knox's family members, but said there is still a noticeable presence from outside media organizations. 
 
 The newspaper reported, citing her father Curt, that Knox is not won't be found in either of her parents' neighborhoods. 
 
 Nevertheless, police were keeping an eye on the situation to make sure it didn't get out of hand. 
 
 "With that level of celebrity, there's always going to be some degree of problems," said Seattle Police Sgt. Sean Whitcomb, according to the report. He added that no one has reached out to police with specific concerns, but "we certainly have tools at our disposal that can be of assistance." 
 
 The types of issues encountered in such situations — harassing phone calls, trespassing, crowds — could necessitate stepped up police patrols, the Post-Intelligencer report said. But the police told the paper that it would do the same for any other resident finding him or herself in a that situation. 
 
 "We're not a private security company," Whitcomb told the newspaper. "But we are a responsive government agency. Certainly if there are any law violations surrounding Amanda's return, then we'll take it very seriously." 
 
 The intense interest in the case means the former American exchange student could get a book deal that easily reaches seven figures — and help pay back her family the money they spent to overturn her murder conviction in the death of her roommate in Italy. 
 
 Speaking fees could earn her $50,000 a piece. Plus there are the movie rights. 
 
 "The importance of her telling her story is to give a picture of hope to people, but also to correct the misperceptions of her, the mischaracterizations of her, of who she is as a person," said Dave Marriott, a publicist hired by the family in 2007. 
 
 "For her to tell her story will help people understand what a wonderful young woman she is," Marriott said. "She has a very heartfelt story to tell." 
 
 And that story so far has been fodder for the tabloids. In Europe, she was dubbed "Foxy Knoxy." In the U.S., she became a cause celebre. In the countless hours of TV footage and hundreds of stories, there's a lot of material that she will need to counter. 
 
 Knox, 24, returned to her hometown of Seattle on Tuesday, a day after she was released. 
 
 She had been in custody since 2007, when she, Sollecito and another man were accused of killing Kercher, her British roommate, as part of a bizarre sex game. Her conviction was overturned after an independent review discredited DNA evidence presented in her first trial. 
 
 Despite that and what some saw as a far-fetched theory by prosecutors, suspicions remain in some quarters about how much she knew about the crime. Hundreds of young Italians jeered the acquittals outside the courtroom, yelling "Shame! Shame!" 
 
 And on Wednesday night, one of judges who served on the appeals court jury, Claudio Pratillo Hellmann, stressed on state TV that the acquittals "resulted from the truth that was created in the trial." 
 
 "But the real truth could be different," he added. "They could also be responsible, but the proof isn't there." 
 
 Questions remained about some of Knox's behavior after her arrest. She reportedly turned cartwheels and did splits as she waited for police questioning. Investigators said she sat on Sollecito's lap, making faces and kissing him. 
 
 Knox confessed to having been at the apartment, covering her ears to drown out Kercher's screams, and later changed her story to say she was at Sollecito's apartment. She was convicted of wrongly implicating her boss, Congolese bar owner Diya "Patrick" Lumumba. ||||| Story highlights Amanda Knox's attorney says appeal is certain, too soon to talk of extradition 
 
 Italian court finds Amanda Knox, ex-boyfriend guilty of murder in retrial 
 
 Knox says the legal proceedings have gotten out of hand, are perverted 
 
 Both were convicted previously of British student's murder, later acquitted on appeal 
 
 An Italian appeals court convicted former exchange student Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito on murder charges Thursday night. 
 
 Prosecutors said the couple had killed Meredith Kercher in November 2007. They were convicted two years later of murder, but those charges were overturned on appeal in 2011. 
 
 A judge said Thursday that Knox, also convicted of slander, was sentenced in absentia to 28 1/2 years in prison. Sollecito's sentence was 25 years. 
 
 Knox, who was at home in Seattle, Washington, said her conviction would bring no consolation to the Kercher family. 
 
 "I am frightened and saddened by this unjust verdict," she said in written remarks. "Having been found innocent before, I expected better from the Italian justice system. The evidence and accusatory theory do not justify a verdict of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. ...There has always been a marked lack of evidence." 
 
 She called the legal proceedings a travesty. 
 
 "This has gotten out of hand. Most troubling is that it was entirely preventable," she said. "I beseech those with the knowledge and authority to address and remediate the problems that worked to pervert the course of justice and waste the valuable resources of the system." 
 
 Knox also said that Kercher's family had suffered greatly. 
 
 "Their grief over Meredith's terrible murder will follow them forever. They deserve respect and support." 
 
 What comes next 
 
 Presiding Judge Alessandro Nencini has 90 days to write his arguments behind the jury's ruling. Once that is out, lawyers have 90 days to appeal. 
 
 Knox's attorney, Ted Simon, said there will certainly be an appeal and cautioned that extradition shouldn't yet be a part of the conversation surrounding the case. 
 
 "It's really not in play right now, because first of all, she has another appeal to the Supreme Court of Italy," he told CNN's Anderson Cooper 360. "In Italy, under their system, you're still actually presumed innocent until that third, final stage." 
 
 Simon said that if extradition does become an issue, Knox has "very substantial defenses" that can be used. 
 
 "But I think we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves," he told CNN. "The bottom line is, there is no evidence. There was no evidence, and there never will be any evidence, and that's why this is such a gross miscarriage of justice." 
 
 Legal analysts debated whether the U.S. would send Knox back to Italy if Rome requests extradition. 
 
 It is unlikely that Knox will return to Italy to serve additional prison time because U.S. law dictates that a person cannot be tried twice on the same charge, a legal expert told CNN. 
 
 "She was once put in jeopardy and later acquitted," said Sean Casey, a former prosecutor who is now a partner at Kobre & Kim in New York. "Under the treaty (between the two nations), extradition should not be granted." 
 
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 Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial Amanda Knox at her parents' home in Seattle, Washington, on March 27, 2015. Knox and Raffaele Sollecito (not pictured) were acquitted by Italy's highest court in the murder of British student Meredith Kercher. Hide Caption 1 of 14 Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial Amanda Knox appears on NBC's "Today" show. Knox spent four years in jail because of murder charges in the death of her roommate Meredith Kercher while studying abroad in Perugia, Italy. Hide Caption 2 of 14 Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial Appeals Court Judge Alessandro Nencini, center, reads the verdict in the death of British student Meredith Kercher in Florence, Italy, on Thursday, January 30, 2014. The appeals court upheld the convictions of Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito for the 2007 murder of her British roommate. Knox was sentenced to 28½ years in prison, raising the specter of a long legal battle over her extradition. Sollecito's sentence was 25 years. Hide Caption 3 of 14 Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial Sollecito, left, and his father, Francesco, leave after attending the final hearing before the verdict on January 30. After nearly 12 hours of deliberation, the court reinstated the guilty verdict first handed down against Knox and Sollecito in 2009. Hide Caption 4 of 14 Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial Patrick Lumumba, the Congolese bartender Knox originally accused of Kercher's murder, talks to the press outside the courthouse during a break form the appeal trial of Knox and Sollecito on September 30. Hide Caption 5 of 14 Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial Knox and her former boyfriend Sollecito were convicted in 2009 to 25 years in prison (Sollecito got 26 years). The conviction was overturned in 2011 for "lack of evidence." But Italy's Supreme Court decided last year to retry the case, saying the jury that acquitted them didn't consider all the evidence and that discrepancies in testimony needed to be answered. Hide Caption 6 of 14 Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old British exchange student, was found dead with her throat slit in an apartment she shared with Knox in Perugia, Italy, on November 2, 2007. Hide Caption 7 of 14 Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial When Knox was detained for questioning in 2007, she implicated Lumumba, the owner of a bar where Knox worked. Lumumba was taken into custody and released after two weeks in prison when his alibi was corroborated. He later won a libel suit against Knox. Hide Caption 8 of 14 Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial Sollecito , Knox's boyfriend at the time of the murder, was convicted in December 2009 with Knox and released when their cases were overturned. Prosecutors testified that police scientists found Sollecito's genetic material on a bra clasp of Kercher's found in her room, while his defense claimed there wasn't enough DNA for a positive ID. Hide Caption 9 of 14 Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivory Coast native raised in Perugia, was convicted separately from Knox and Sollecito and is now serving 16 years. Guede admitted to being with Kercher on the night she died, but said he didn't kill her. Both Knox and Sollecito argued that he was the killer, and Guede suggested the couple took Kercher's life. Hide Caption 10 of 14 Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial Meredith Kercher's family lawyer Francesco Maresca, left, argued in court in 2011 that the multiple stab wounds implied more than one aggressor killed Kercher. Pictured from left are Maresca, Kercher's father John, sister Stephanie, brother Lyle and brother John at a press conference in 2008. Hide Caption 11 of 14 Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial Carlo Dalla Vedova, one lawyer on Knox's defense team, argued in court that "the only possible decision to take is that of absolving Amanda Knox" in his closing argument for her appeal hearing. Hide Caption 12 of 14 Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial Carlo Pacelli represented Patrick Lumumba in his civil suit case. He called Knox two-faced and a "she-devil." Hide Caption 13 of 14 Photos: The Knox-Sollecito retrial Giulia Bongiorno, the lead lawyer on Raffaele Sollecito's defense team, compared Knox to Jessica Rabbit on the movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" Knox is not bad, just "drawn that way," Bongiorno said in her closing statements in the 2011 trial. Hide Caption 14 of 14 
 
 CNN legal analyst Mark O'Mara said that the United States has to respect the treaty. 
 
 "We have to follow the letter of the law," he said Thursday. 
 
 Knox says she won't go back 
 
 Kercher, 21, of Great Britain, was found partially nude in a pool of blood in the house she shared with Knox in the picturesque town of Perugia, where both women were exchange students. 
 
 Knox has said she is afraid to return to Italy, where she spent four years behind bars. 
 
 "I will become ... a fugitive," she told Italian daily La Repubblica this month, when asked what she would do if she was found guilty in the second trial. 
 
 Italy's Supreme Court in March overturned the pair's acquittals, saying that the jury did not consider all the evidence and that discrepancies in testimony needed to be answered. 
 
 The case was sent to a retrial in Florence. 
 
 Ruling unclear 
 
 The retrial began in September, refocusing international attention on the case that grabbed headlines in Italy, Britain and the United States -- but neither Knox nor Sollecito were present in court. 
 
 Both Knox and Sollecito have maintained their innocence. 
 
 'Fugitive' 
 
 Knox, 26, and Sollecito, 29, were convicted in 2009 of killing Kercher, who was found with more than 40 stab wounds and a deep gash in her throat. 
 
 Speaking on Thursday, Knox's defense team asked for an acquittal. 
 
 Knox has always denied murdering Kercher and has maintained she is not guilty in a written statement to the Florence court. 
 
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 "I must repeat to you. I'm innocent. I did not rape, I did not steal ... I did not kill Meredith," Knox said in a lengthy e-mail presented by her lawyer to the court in December. 
 
 Sollecito was in the Dominican Republic at the start of the retrial but returned to Italy. 
 
 In November, he took to the stand to make a spontaneous declaration, saying the charges against him were "absurd." 
 
 "For me, it's a nightmare that goes beyond imagination," he said of what he's been through. 
 
 'No one remembers Meredith' 
 
 "They are tired of this long trial and they want justice," Francesci Maresca, attorney for the Kercher family, said. 
 
 The Kercher family welcomed the retrial ruling, Maresca said in March, adding they believed the ruling that acquitted Knox and Sollecito was "superficial and unbalanced." 
 
 They believe more than one person was in the room when Kercher was killed, he said. 
 
 "No one remembers Meredith, while the two defendants write books, speak to the media and earn money," Maresca told the court in closing remarks last month.
– Amanda Knox's Italian ex-boyfriend has spoken out for the first time since their murder convictions were overturned, saying "we need each other," and that they talk every day and he cannot wait to see her again, reports the Daily Mail. "We spent four years in a circle of hell, we suffered unspeakably, and it ruined our lives," said Raffaele Sollecito. "I really want to see her again, to speak with her and look into her eyes." Sollecito said that the two write and talk, "to try and understand what happened to us," and that he has been invited to spend Christmas at the Knox home in Seattle. "I will certainly go and see Amanda." They each "look forward to a future that appeared broken forever but instead we can still build on," he says. Italian speakers can check out the original interview in Oggi magazine.