Knox acquittal appeal lodged

Prosecutors have formally lodged an appeal to Italy’s highest criminal court against the overturning of the murder convictions of Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend.

Both were acquitted of the killing of British student Meredith Kercher in an appeal case that followed their initial convictions.

Prosecutors in the town of Perugia filed the 111-page appeal more than four months after Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were freed. The two were convicted in a lower court of murdering Knox’s roommate Miss Kercher in what prosecutors described as a sex-fuelled attack. The appeals court said the evidence did not hold up.

Sollecito’s lawyer said the High Court is expected to issue its decision toward the end of the year.

The High Court cannot hear new evidence, and will make its decision based on what has been submitted in earlier trials.

The fatal blow to the prosecution’s case was a court-ordered DNA review in the appellate trial that discredited crucial genetic evidence used to convict Knox and Sollecito in 2009.