Difficult to forgive Meredith’s killer, says family
Speaking several hours before the verdict was issued, Stephanie Kercher said her sister had been “hugely forgotten” in the furore around the appeal launched by American student Amanda Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito over the November 2007 killing in Perugia.
Sitting alongside her mother Arline and brother Lyle, she told a press conference: “It is very difficult to keep her memory alive in all of this.”
Stephanie Kercher said forgiveness “does not come into it” at the moment.
She went on: “It would be very difficult to forgive anything at this stage.
“What everyone needs to remember is ... the brutality of what happened that night, everything that Meredith must have felt that night, everything she went through, the fear and the terror, and not knowing why.
“She doesn’t deserve that, no-one deserves that.
“It is very difficult to know what happened that night without knowing the truth and that is why we are here. We absolutely believe in the Italian justice system. Everybody has a right to a free trial. She was a great friend to everyone that knew her. She was always there for everyone. I can’t think of a reason why anyone would kill her. The evidence is obviously there.”
The family said it would not hold another press conference until today,
Meredith’s mother Arline refused to say whether she believed Knox killed her daughter but said she trusted the Italian justice system.
She added: “You have to go by the evidence because there is nothing else. What I want, what they want doesn’t come into it.
“It is what the police have found, what the science has found, what the evidence is and that’s all you can go on.
“It is to find out what happened to Meredith and to get some justice really.”
Stephanie Kercher had urged the court to weigh the evidence against Amanda Knox and not pay attention to the “media hype” surrounding the high-profile case.
She said: “As long as they decide today, based purely on the information available to them, and they don’t look into the media hype, I think justice will be found.”
Lyle Kercher said: “It’s difficult to speak of forgiveness at this time. Four years is a very long time but on the other hand, it’s not and it’s still very, very raw.
“Looking at the photographs (tendered to court), you would find it difficult to forgive somebody who did that to your sibling. It wasn’t a case of celebrating (at the first trial). Three young people involved in this have also had their lives taken away.
“You have to balance forgiveness with compassion as well. But I am not sure we will be giving out forgiveness. We can’t blame her parents if they believe in her innocence, but it’s obviously hard for us.
“It’s difficult for our legal team, who are battling against what is essentially a large PR machine.
