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'I am being framed'
25/11/2007 21:29 - (SA)
Rome - The newest suspect in the slaying of a British student in the central Italian city of Perugia admits he was in the woman's room the night she died, but says he didn't kill her and that an Italian who is trying to frame him did, his lawyer said on Sunday.
Rudy Hermann Guede is wanted in the death of Meredith Kercher, 21, who was found dead in her appartment on November 2 in Perugia where she was studying for the year. Kercher died from a stab wound to her neck and prosecutors said she was killed resisting a sexual assault.
The lawyer, Walter Biscotti said: "Rudy was present, he was there, but he denies having ever committed acts of sexual violence against Meredith and it wasn't he who killed her.
Guede had sex with Kercher
"He saw the assassin; he knows he's Italian," because the killer told Guede in Italian that police would blame him for the murder before fleeing the apartment, Biscotti said.
Biscotti met Guede for the first time on Saturday in the German jail where he has been held since his arrest on Tuesday on an international arrest warrant issued by Italian authorities.
DNA testing has confirmed that Guede had sex with Kercher the night of the murder.
Biscotti said Guede had left Kercher's room to go to the bathroom when the killer slipped in and knifed the girl. He said Guede returned to the room and held Kercher in his arms, but then fled.
"He found himself in a totally desperate situation, with Meredith in his arms dying," Biscotti said.
"External circumstances made him flee immediately."
Biscotti said he thought that Guede, an Ivorian, would be extradited to Italy within 10 to 15 days.
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