RAFFAELE Sollecito, the former Italian boyfriend of US student Amanda Knox, has pleaded his innocence before a court, insisting he's been the victim of a "big mistake".
Sollecito and Knox are suspected of murdering British student Meredit Kercher, six years ago. They were found guilty in a first ruling in 2009 and acquitted on appeal two years later, but that verdict was invalidated in March and a retrial was ordered.
"These accusations against me ... against us, are absurd," Sollecito said on Wednesday.
"I humbly ask you to look at the reality of all this story and to consider the big mistake that was made and to give me the possibility ... to have a life, because at the moment I do not have a real life," he added.
It was the first time the 29-year-old appeared in court since the new appeal trial started in Florence, central Italy, on September 30.
He made a spontaneous declaration, meaning that he was not subjected to cross-questioning.
At the end of his remarks, Sollecito almost broke into tears.
The courtroom was packed, with people in the public gallery forced to stand. Many took out their mobile phones to photograph Sollecito, who did not speak to journalists.
Knox, who is back in her home town of Seattle, has declined to return to Italy for the trial.
The Florence appeals court could deliver its verdict on January 10, Italian media reports say, based on the latest schedule for hearings announced by presiding judge Alessandro Nencini.
In case of a conviction, Knox and Sollecito would still be able to file another appeal, and if eventually confirmed guilty, Knox would not go to prison unless US authorities agreed to extradite her.
Kercher died aged 21. She was found on November 2, 2007, half-naked and with multiple stab wounds, in the apartment she was sharing with Knox in the central Italian university town of Perugia, along with two other female students.
At the time, Sollecito was "one week away" from graduating in computer studies and was experiencing "his first true love story" with Knox, he said in court.
Wednesday's hearing also discussed forensic tests from the presumed murder weapon, a kitchen knife that was seized from Sollecito's flat. Police found DNA traces attributable to Knox, but not to Sollecito or Kercher.
Giulia Buongiorno, a lawyer for Sollecito, insisted that the DNA results pointed to the innocence of the defendants. She said it was normal for the knife to have traces of Knox, since she likely used it while cooking at her former boyfriend's.
Forensic tests on the knife also ruled out a DNA match with Rudy Guede, the only person in the case who has so far been proven guilty.
In 2010, he was jailed for 16 years for murder and sexual assault, but in their ruling judges concluded that he did not act alone.
Guede, who was born in the Ivory Coast but was raised in Italy, was convicted after a bloodied fingerprint on Kercher's pillow was found to be his. There were also traces of his DNA on the victim's body and the toilet paper in the bathroom.
Sollecito said he never met Guede, and dismissed as absurd suggestions that Kercher was killed following a "racy group sex game", as suggested by Italy's top appeal court when it ordered a retrial.
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