Indictments sought in slaying of student

ROME – Prosecutors on Friday requested the indictments of a student from Seattle and two other people on the charge of murdering a British college student in Italy.

Prosecutors in Perugia requested that Amanda Knox, 21, a University of Washington student; her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito; and Ivory Coast citizen Rudy Hermann Guede be tried in the death of Meredith Kercher. The prosecutors spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity as required by their office.

The requested indictments also would charge the three with sexual violence and stealing $475, two credit cards and two cell phones from Kercher.

All three have denied any wrongdoing.

Kercher, a 21-year-old student from Leeds University in England, was found dead in November from a stab wound to the neck in the house she shared with Knox in the university town of Perugia in central Italy.

Knox’s lawyer, Luciano Ghirga, said the requested indictments had been expected, and he did not offer further comment.

A judge must now decide whether to grant the prosecutor’s request and order the three to stand trial. A date for the hearing has not been set, but defense lawyers said it was expected in mid-September.

“We think our client is innocent, but it would have been a dream to hope the prosecutor would drop the charges,” said Sollecito’s defense lawyer, Luca Maori.

Knox and Sollecito have been jailed since November. Guede was arrested in Germany in November and extradited to Italy.

Prosecutors say the three strangled and stabbed Kercher, according to a court document that notified defense lawyers last month that the investigation was closed. The document said Guede engaged in sexual violence against Kercher with the help of Knox and Sollecito.

According to the prosecutors, Knox and Sollecito also tried to make it look like the apartment was burglarized to cover up the crime.