Post date: Mar 26, 2011 2:50:48 PM
Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito appear in court for the latest hearing in their appeal over the murder of Meredith Kercher. The defence is presenting new witnesses.
PERUGIA, ITALY (MARCH 26, 2011) REUTERS - U.S. citizen Amanda Knox and Italian Raffaele Sollecito on Saturday (March 26) returned to a Perugia court after a two-week break in their appeal for the murder of British woman Meredith Kercher.
New testimonies from witnesses called by the defence were expected to be heard during Saturday's hearing.Knox and her former boyfriend Sollecito were escorted in and out of the courtroom for court recesses.
Knox and Sollecito are appealing against prison sentences of 26 and 25 years respectively for their role in the killing, which prosecutors say was the result of an extreme sex game that turned violent.
Twenty-one-year-old Kercher was found half-naked and with her throat slit in a flat she shared with U.S. student Knox in the university city of Perugia, on Nov. 2, 2007.
A key prosecution witness, homeless Antonio Curatolo, had said during the original trial that he saw Knox and Sollecito a few metres from Kercher's flat on the night of the murder.
He said he saw the defendants in a car park where coaches were taking students to a local disco.
Witnesses called by the defence two weeks ago, which included coach operators and disco workers, said there were no bus services on the night of the murder, and that discos were closed following a busy Halloween night.
Curatolo is due to appear as a witness again on Saturday.
The Perugia court said in December it would hear new witnesses and also new expert evidence concerning the knife allegedly used as the murder weapon.