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Murder suspects to stay in jail
09/11/2007 16:12 - (SA)
Perugia - An Italian magistrate on Friday remanded a US student, her Italian boyfriend and a Congolese nightclub owner in connection with the murder of a British student, news reports said.
The semi-naked body of Meredith Kercher, 21, was found on November 1 with a stab wound in the neck inside a flat she shared with fellow university students in Perugia, central Italy.
Police said she was the victim of a sexual assault.
On Tuesday police detained one of Kercher's flatmates, 20-year-old Amanda Knox, her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 24, and the Congolese man, Lumumba "Patrick" Diya, 38.
Lawyers representing the three said on Thursday their clients deny any wrongdoing.
But in an initial statement Knox reportedly gave to police and published in Italian newspapers, the student admitted that on the night of the murder she was in the flat and had heard screams from the bedroom where Kercher was in the company of Diya.
Perugia Magistrate Claudia Matteini ruled on Friday the three must remain in jail while prosecutors further investigate the circumstances surrounding the British student's death.
The case has made headlines in Italy and has drawn reporters from Britain and the United States to Perugia, normally a tranquil university town.
Since the arrests were made several disturbing details have emerged including copies of a short story - describing a rape committed by two brothers - allegedly written by Knox and posted on the internet.
Several newspapers have also published photographs allegedly showing Sollecito dressed as a surgeon holding a meat cleaver and a bottle of bleach and posted on his personal website.
- Sapa-dpa
- SAPA
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