Knox arrives in court for verdict

3 October 2011 Last updated at 14:55 ET

American Amanda Knox was jailed for 26 years for the murder of her housemate Meredith Kercher

Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito have arrived in court in Perugia, Italy, to learn the result of the appeal against their convictions for the murder of UK student Meredith Kercher.

Knox, 24, and her ex-boyfriend Sollecito, 27, travelled from jail in prison vans ahead of the jury’s verdict, which is expected imminently.

Miss Kercher, 21, from Coulsdon, south London, was murdered in November 2007.

Knox and Sollecito were found guilty of murder and sexual violence in 2009.

Earlier Knox, who is serving 26 years in jail for the killing, was given a final chance to state her case in a personal statement and she told a packed courtroom she was “paying with her life”.

Tearful, and speaking in fluent Italian, the American said: “I did not kill, I did not rape, I did not steal. I was not there.”

She added: “I want to go back home. I want to go back to my life. I don’t want to be punished. I don’t want my life and my future to be taken away for something I didn’t do because I am innocent.”

Her ex-boyfriend Sollecito, who was given a 25-year term, told the court in his statement that he was in a “nightmare” and said the claims against him were “totally untrue”.

Ahead of the verdict, Miss Kercher’s family, who are in Perugia for the decision, said they would always find it difficult to forgive her killers.

Prosecutors have said they will appeal if the verdict is overturned. They have called for Knox and Sollecito’s sentences to be increased to life in prison.

Miss Kercher had been sharing a cottage in Perugia with Knox, who is originally from Seattle, during a year abroad from Leeds University when she was murdered.

Prosecutors said she was killed in a brutal sex game which went wrong. Her throat had been slit and she had been sexually assaulted.

A third person – Rudy Guede, 24 – was also convicted of Miss Kercher’s murder in a separate trial and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

His conviction was upheld on appeal but his sentence reduced to 16 years.

— ’re ’s , . : A ‘Malign Intellectual Subculture’ – George Monbiot Smears Chomsky, Herman, Peterson, Pilger And Media Lens.