EON

American student Amanda Knox, 22 and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 25, were with the help of a third person, convicted of murdering Knox’s roommate, Meredith Kercher, a British woman of 21 years.

They were sentenced respectively to 26 and 25 years in prison in Perugia for the bloody murder of Meredith Kercher on the night of 1 to November 2, 2007, while under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

Perugia is a medieval Italian town which the university receives a large proportion of foreign students.

The trial lasted nearly a year and the deliberations of the two judges and six jurors for almost 12 hours.

Prosecutors had requested life imprisonment.

Meredith Kercher was found half naked and her throat cut in an apartment in Perugia. The knife used to kill her, discovered at the home of her ex-boyfriend Sollecito, bore traces of Knox’s DNA.

The prosecution showed the couple had struck a fatal stab wound while a third defendant, Ivorian of 22 years, Rudy Guede, immobilization. The victim refused to participate in sexual games.

Guede was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

The victim’s family said he was satisfied with the sentence. The Knox will the appeal. Aunt Amanda Knox told CNN that U.S. officials were involved in the struggle of the family to free the young woman who proclaims his innocence, as his co-accused.

Despite the obvious disappointment of being convicted of murder Knox told Walter Verini, a Parliamentarian representing the region of Umbria where she is jailed, that her trial was “correct” and that she still has faith in Italian courts.