Witness tells Kercher trial suspect brandished knife

An Albanian man told a trial in Perugia, Italy, in sometimes incoherent testimony today that an American student charged with the murder of her British roommate had waved a knife above her head outside of the apartment house.

Trying to understand what the witness was saying, Judge Giancarlo Massei often interrupted the sometimes mumbling Hekuran Kokomani, who recalled seeing US student Amanda Knox, her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito and Ivory Coast national Rudy Hermann Guede in front of the apartment house in the university town of Perugia where victim Meredith Kercher lived.

Although described by prosecutors as a key witness, Mr Kokomani could not specify if he saw the three together the night in November 2007 when Leeds University Miss Kercher was stabbed to death in her bedroom.

Earlier a prosecution witness has testified he saw the two suspects accused of killing Miss Kercher in a basketball court near the site of the murder at the time the victim is believed to have died.

Homeless Antonio Curatolo said that Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were “chatting, at times animatedly,” from about 9.30pm to “shortly before midnight”.

The witness said the basketball court is a few dozen yards away from the apartment where Miss Kercher was killed in 2007.

Miss Kercher, 21, is believed to have died between 9pm and 11pm on November 1, 2007, based on the post-mortem examination and the accounts of friends with whom she had eaten dinner that night, court documents say.

Knox and Sollecito are accused of murdering Miss Kercher after she refused to join in a sex game. Both deny the charges. The trial continues.

Prosecutors allege that Miss Kercher was killed during what began as a sex game, with Sollecito holding her by the shoulders from behind while Knox touched her with the point of a knife. They say Guede tried to sexually assault Miss Kercher and then Knox fatally stabbed her in the throat.

Guede was convicted of murder in a separate trial last year and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Sollecito, 25, has maintained he was at his own apartment the night of the murder, watching a movie on his computer, though one witness testified earlier in the trial there was no sign he used it during the hours Miss Kercher was killed. The American has insisted she was not in her apartment during the slaying.

A second witness testified today that he saw Knox, Sollecito, Guede and Miss Kercher walk out of the apartment that the Briton was sharing with Knox on October 30, 2007, two days before the killing.

Fabio Gioffredi said he was “99 % sure” he saw Guede. “They were all dressed in dark clothes, except for Amanda, who was wearing a red coat, with big buttons, 60s-style,” Mr Gioffredi said.

Sollecito denied ever meeting Guede and told the court his defence will show evidence he was not with them that night.