A court in Italy has reinstated the guilty verdicts against Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito for the murder of UK student Meredith Kercher in 2007. American Knox - who is in the US - and her Italian ex-boyfriend Sollecito had pleaded not guilty. She was sentenced to 28 years and six months in jail, while Sollecito received 25 years. The latest verdict overturns the pair's successful 2011 appeal, which freed them after four years in jail. Ms Kercher was stabbed to death in the flat she shared in Perugia with Knox. The judges ordered that damages should be paid by the pair to the family of Ms Kercher.
Ms Kercher's brother Lyle and sister Stephanie were present when the verdict was read out. Mr Sollecito was ordered to surrender his passport. Extradition proceedings against Ms Knox, who refused to return to Italy for the case, may now begin. Thursday's fresh appeal hearing in Florence was ordered by Italy's highest court, the supreme court in Rome. It had found that the 2011 appeal - which acquitted the pair - was flawed.
The court in Florence heard from Ms Knox's defence team in the morning, before the two judges and eight jurors retired to deliberate on a verdict. Summing up, Ms Knox's lawyer, Carlo Dalla Vedova, told the court her innocence was "rock-solid and it allows us to await the verdict with serenity". The supreme court overturned their acquittals last March after an appeal by prosecutors, who argued that important DNA evidence had been disregarded.
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