Perugia murder suspect wants separate trial

| Wed, 09/10/2008 - 03:32

Lawyers for a man accused of the murder of a British exchange student here said on Tuesday that they will ask that their client be tried separately from the other two suspects.

The attorneys for Ivorian national Hermann 'Rudy' Guede, 21, said they will ask that their client be given a fast-track trial, which means he will accept the verdict.

Guede, along with American student Amanda Knox, 21, and her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 24, has been accused of the murder of 22-year-old Meredith Kercher.

The British exchange student was found last November 2 with her throat slashed in the flat she shared with Knox and several other roommates.

Guede's lawyers said they wanted a fast-track trial ''because it is important that the position of our client be kept separate from those of the other two suspects''.

Sources close to Guede's defense team said that there was a risk that Knox and Sollecito's lawyers may conspire to frame him.

Guede is the only one of the three to admit that he was in Kercher's flat the night she was murdered and his lawyers claim that there is no link between him and the murder weapon.

They also claimed, as opposed to Knox and Sollecito, he never tried to mislead investigators.

Guede has admitted having sex with with Kercher and told police he was in the bathroom listening to his I-Pod when the British student was murdered and that afterwards had touched the body.

His lawyers said this explained why his DNA was found in the toilet and his fingerprint in blood was discovered at the scene of the crime.

Guede aggravated his position by fleeing to Germany where he was later arrested and extradited to Italy.

A report handed to the preliminary hearings judge, who next Tuesday will decide on bringing the case to trial, said that Knox's DNA had been found on the handle of a knife believed to be the murder weapon, while Kercher's DNA was on the blade.

The report also said that Sollecito's DNA was found on the victim's bra.

Investigators said in the report that both Knox and Sollecito had given vague, conflicting and various versions of their movements the night Kercher was killed.

They are also believed to have tried to mislead investigators by changing the scene of the crime to make it appear as if a break-in and burglary had taken place.

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