Raffaele Sollecito, left, and his father Francesco leave after attending the final hearing before the third court verdict for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher, in Florence, Italy, on, Jan. 30, 2014.(Photo: Antonio Calanni, AP)
The family of Meredith Kercher spoke to the media on Friday after an Italian appeals court ruled that Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were guilty of her 2007 murder.
The Kercher family addressed a news conference as an unconfirmed Italian report by Rai News said that Raffaele Sollecito was "stopped near the border" with Slovenia and Austria. It was not clear if he was seeking to flee the country.
The court ordered that Sollecito's passport and identity card be confiscated immediately after the guilty verdict late Thursday.
"The guilty verdict is just the next step or us," said Stephanie Kercher, Meredith's sister, addressing the news conference in Florence. "We're still on a journey to the truth." Later she added: "We might never know" the true circumstances of Meredith's murder.
Meredith's brother, Lyle, said that nothing would ever take away from the horror of what happened.
Knox, who released a statement Thursday from her hometown of Seattle, said she was "frightened and saddened by the unjust verdict" and blamed "overzealous and intransigent prosecution," ''narrow-minded investigation" and coercive interrogation techniques.
"This has gotten out of hand," Knox said in the statement. "Having been found innocent before, I expected better from the Italian justice system."
Italy's highest court will now review the case and produce a final verdict. If the conviction is upheld, Italian authorities may seek Knox's extradition, although it is not clear whether the State Department will cooperate with that process.
Asked whether Knox should be extradited to Italy following the guilty verdict, Lyle Kercher said" "Yes."
Source: Top Stories - Google News - http://ift.tt/1fCMYPf
0 comments:
Post a Comment