Meredith suspect agrees to extradition

A suspect in the Meredith Kercher murder case who fled to Germany after her death told a court there today that he would not fight extradition.

Rudy Hermann Guede, 20, was ordered to be held in custody until he could be sent back to Italy where the 21-year-old was killed.

“He explained that he is innocent and had nothing to do with the crime,” his lawyer said after the hearing.

Italy had issued an international warrant for Guede’s arrest, and prosecutors now need to go through the formal process of getting the extradition authorised. He should be sent there within a week.

Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was arrested after being caught on a train without a ticket in the western German city of Mainz.

He is wanted over the sexual assault and stabbing of Meredith in the house she shared with American student Amanda Marie Knox in Perugia.

Knox and her Italian boyfriend are currently jailed. Both have denied any wrongdoing.

Italian authorities have said they found Knox’s DNA on the handle of a knife believed to have been the murder weapon .

It came from the kitchen of a house where Knox’s Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, lived in Perugia.

The search for Guede was launched after bloody fingerprints were found on Meredith’s pillow and on toilet paper in the house. The prints did not match Knox or Sollecito.