Amanda Knox and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were found guilty for the second time of the 2007 murder of British student Meredith Kercher, in a retrial that reversed an earlier appeal judgment
An appeals court in Florence on Thursday upheld the guilty verdict against US student Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito for the 2007 murder of her British roommate Meredith Kercher.
Knox was sentenced to 28 and a half years in prison, raising the spectre of a long legal battle over her extradition.
After nearly 12 hours of deliberations, the court reinstated the guilty verdict first handed down against Knox and Sollecito in 2009.
Lawyers for Knox and Sollecito vowed to appeal to Italy's highest court, a process that will take at least another year, dragging out a legal saga that has divided court-watchers in three nations.
In a statement from Seattle, where she had awaited the verdict, Knox said she was "frightened and saddened" by the decision, which she said was unjust and the result of an overzealous prosecution and narrow-minded investigation.
The verdict had been overturned in 2011 and the pair were freed from prison, but Italy's supreme court vacated that decision and sent the case back for a third trial in Florence.
Sollecito, whose lawyers said they would appeal the verdict, was sentenced to 25 years.
While Sollecito was in court on Thursday morning, he didn't return for the verdict, and 26-year-old Knox was at home in Seattle awaiting the decision with, in her own words, "my heart in my throat."
Sollecito's lawyers said they were stunned and would take their appeal to Italy's top court.
Presiding Judge Alessando Nencini ordered the 29-year-old Sollecito's passport revoked but made no requests for Knox's movements to be limited, saying she was "justifiably abroad."
Experts have said it's unlikely that Italy would request Knox's extradition before the verdict is final. If the conviction is upheld on a final appeal, a lengthy extradition process would likely ensue.
Knox's defence team gave its last round of rebuttals earlier Thursday, ending four months of arguments in the third trial for Kercher's murder in the Italian university town of Perugia.
Kercher's brother and sister were in the courtroom for the verdict, and said the outcome was the best they could have hoped for.
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