:
MEZ CASE APPEAL -
Meredith Kercher Murder Case -

Judges in the higher Court of Cassation in Rome could rule tomorrow on requests to release the three principal suspects in the case: Mez roommate Amanda Knox from Seattle, Knox's boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito and Rudy Guede.

They were charged for the purpose of detainment and are currently being held in custody. Financial bond was not available to them due to the gravity of the charges which may involve aggressively violent homicide. All three deny wrongdoing.

In a process somewhat comparable to the American Grand Jury process, a panel of judges in Perugia ruled that there is sufficient evidence to warrant their detainment until a formal Bill of Indictment with particulars is issued. Under Italian law the prosecutors have a year to further investigate before they issue the formal bill of indictment.

Italian legal custom, apparently, can separate preliminary charges from the formal documentation of a writ of indictment. In practice, we seem have some room for discretion, too, for prosecutors to refine preliminary charges if they feel it necessary.

Thus, the three suspects have been
charged, but not formally indicted yet.

* * * * *
Meanwhile, the Italian Press has dubbed this a tabloid-type crime (giallo), implying it's a penny-dreadful or has grotesque qualities. Certainly, the crime scene was quite bloody.

The prosecutors' Big Question
has been: who was at the scene of the crime?

That house was not a closed box; the scene of that crime was porous. There were other people living in the house, such as some fellows downstairs. And it is possible there may have been some illegal drugs moving through or being cached in the house. This issue opens at least one other avenue for investigators to potentially explore.

Thus, the prosecutors' Big Question has not been nailed down definitively yet, and it remains to be seen whether others will be identified and/or placed there.

:: UK Press Association release ::

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