GERMANY: German police arrest man in connection with the murder of British student Meredith Kercher in the Italian town of Perugia

Police in Germany arrested a man from the Ivory Coast on Tuesday (November 20) wanted in connection with the murder in Italy of British student Meredith Kercher. Italian police identified the fourth suspect in the case as 21-year-old Rudy Hermann Guede from the Ivory Coast and said he had been arrested by Interpol near the German city of Wiesbaden. Italian Prime Minister, Romano Prodi thanked the German police for their work, saying news of the arrest was "important to us." Kercher, a 21 year-old exchange student, was found dead in her bedroom with a deep cut to the throat in the university city of Perugia, about 130 km (80 miles) north of Rome, on November 2. Her American flatmate Amanda Knox, 20, Knox's Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 24, and a Congolese man, Lumumba Diya, 37, who runs a bar in Perugia, have been in police custody since November 6 on suspicion of involvement in the killing. The Italian media says Guede had been living with an Italian family in Perugia but went missing after the murder. Media leaks from the investigation say his fingerprint was discovered on Kercher's blood-stained pillow and his faeces were also found in the toilet of Kercher and Knox's flat. Police suspect a sexual motive and Italian and British newspapers have reported that prosecutors believe that Kercher, on a year's study trip from Leeds University, was killed because she refused to have sex with one or more of the assailants. The three suspects held in Italy all say they are innocent, although Knox initially accused Lumumba of the murder and said she had had to cover her ears to drown out her flatmate's screams, according to media leaks of her interrogation.

ITN Source | November 20, 2007

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