Parents Confident Knox Will Be Acquitted
Student indicted on murder charges in Italy awaits decision on house arrest.
PERUGIA, Italy, Oct. 29, 2008 — -- Amanda Knox's parents, Edda Mellas and Curt Knox, said today they believe she will be acquitted when she goes to trial for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher.
Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, her former lover, were indicted Tuesday on charges of murder and sexual violence in the killing of Kercher, who was Amanda Knox's roommate in Perugia, Italy. A third defendant was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the murder.
"I don't fear that they're going to find her guilty because her lawyers say that is not going to happen -- there is no evidence, no motive, nothing," an emotional Mellas told ABC News' Chris Cuomo in an exclusive interview on "Good Morning America."
After alternating stays in Italy for nearly a year to see their daughter twice a week in prison, Mellas and Curt Knox learned today that she will have to remain in prison during her trial.
An Italian judge ruled today that Amanda Knox and Sollecito should be denied house arrest, so the two will continue to be detained in separate Italian prisons and may face many more months behind bars until the end of the trial.
Mellas said she fears for her daughter's well-being. "I just worry about her and the toll this will take on her and her life," she said.
Amanda Knox, a 21-year-old student from Seattle, and Sollecito have both spent nearly a year in jail as Italian police have investigated the killing, a case that shocked Italy. The first hearing in the trial is scheduled for Dec. 4.
Kercher was found seminaked with her throat cut, lying in a pool of blood at her Perugia home the morning of Nov. 2, 2007. Prosecutors have alleged that the three suspects were angered that she had rebuffed their sexual advances.
Amanda Knox and Sollecito, who were in a relationship at the time of Kercher's slaying, have both maintained they are innocent.
"This is a terrible moment for me. I feel awful. I'm not a killer," Amanda Knox wrote in a note to her lawyer Luciano Ghirga, according to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
After the hearing, Ghirga said Amanda Knox "was quite disappointed."
"She is ready to start again," Ghirga told the newspaper. "The [first] hearing is very close. We have to reorganize our defense line in time."
Rudy Guede, the third suspect, had asked to have his case separated from that of Amanda Knox and Sollecito. He sought a fast-track trial in which the judge in the preliminary hearing delivers a verdict based on the evidence presented by prosecutors and the defense.
Prosecutors allege that Amanda Knox stabbed Kercher in the throat, while Sollecito and Guede held her down and Guede tried to sexually assault her.
Guede, a 21-year-old Ivory Coast citizen, had admitted to being in the house the night Kercher was killed but like the other two denied sexually assaulting and murdering the British woman.
After the judge announced his decision, the Kerchers' lawyer said, "Italian justice has paid the tribute of truth to poor Meredith," according to Reuters.
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