Rudy Guede, an Ivorian drifter
convicted of murdering British exchange student Meredith Kercher
in Perugia in 2007, became a free man Tuesday after he was
released with time off from a 16-year prison term.
A Viterbo surveillance court judge released Guede, who will be
35 on Boxing Day, awarding him an early release 14 years after
the November 1 murder of 21-year-old London-born Leeds
University student Kercher.
A year ago Guede was entrusted to the social services to do
community service instead of jail time for the remaining year or
so of his sentence.
Guede was 20 years old at the time of the murder in the Umbrian
capital.
He is the only person definitively convicted of killing the
British exchange student after the Italian supreme court
acquitted two other former suspects, American Amanda Knox and
her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, overturning an
earlier conviction.
The Ivorian, who has maintained his innocence, made an
unsuccessful bid for his case to be reviewed after Knox and
Sollecito were cleared.
The explanation of the supreme court's conviction of Guede said
he was not the only person involved, saying the unidentified
other or others should be found.
Guede's DNA was found inside Kercher and all over the murder
scene.
Knox and Sollecito's initial conviction was based on DNA
evidence that was later ruled unsafe, leading to their final
acquittal.
Guede said he went into a "state of shock" after finding
Kercher dead following a visit to the bathroom after meeting her
on the night she was killed.
He fled the country and was arrested in Germany a few days after
the murder.
In September 2019 Guede was granted daytime release from
jail.
The end of Guede's term was initially calculated to be January 4
next year but the surveillance judge's decision brought it back
to November 20, three days ago, spelling his immediate release.
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