Meredith Kercher: Rudy Guede to finish term doing community service
- Published
Meredith Kercher was an exchange student at the University of Perugia in 2007
The man convicted of killing 21-year-old UK student Meredith Kercher will finish his sentence doing community service, an Italian court has ruled.
Born in London in 1985, Ms Kercher went to the University of Perugia in 2007 as an exchange student.
On 1 November that year she was sexually assaulted and stabbed to death in her flat, accommodation she shared with American student Amanda Knox.
Rudy Guede was convicted in 2008. He denies murdering Ms Kercher.
Ms Knox and her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were separately convicted of Ms Kercher's murder in 2009.
Their arrests and the guilty verdicts generated international media attention. The pair served four years behind bars before those convictions were overturned.
After a number of appeals and retrials Italy's highest court acquitted them both for good in March 2015.
Guede left Perugia and travelled to Germany in the days after her killing. After his extradition back to Italy he chose a fast-track trial, held in a closed session without journalists present, and was subsequently convicted of the murder after his DNA was found at the scene.
Rudy Guede, centre, was convicted of Ms Kercher's murder in 2008
The Ivory Coast-born 33-year-old has repeatedly claimed he is innocent. He was initially jailed for 30 years, later reduced to 16, on appeal.
On Friday, a court ruled that Guede could now complete that term doing community service.
He had already been given partial prison release in 2017, and his lawyer told local media after the ruling that his client was "calm and socially well integrated".
More on the case:
Amanda Knox: "I'm afraid of being framed"
Related topics
- Published7 March 2020
- Published15 June 2019
- Published28 March 2015
