ROME, Metropolitan City of Rome — The only person convicted in the 2007 murder of British student Meredith Kercher was freed after serving most of his 16-year prison sentence.
Rudy Guede’s planned Jan. 4 release was moved up a few weeks by a judge and he was freed on Tuesday, attorney Fabrizio Ballarini told multiple Italian news agencies.
The murder of Kercher gained international notoriety after Kercher's roommate, Seattle resident Amanda Knox, Knox's then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito and Ivorian-born Guede were accused of killing Kercher on Nov. 1, 2007 in the university city of Perugia.
Knox and Sollecito were initially convicted but Italy’s highest court threw out the convictions in 2015 after a series of flip-flop decisions.
Guede has denied killing Kercher.
Knox wasn't only acquitted, she was awarded financial damages for police failing to provide legal assistance and a translator during a night of questioning following the murder. The European Human Rights Court in Strasbourg, France, said in its ruling that Italy hadn't succeeded in proving that "the restriction of Ms. Knox's access to a lawyer ... had not irreparably undermined the fairness of the proceedings as a whole." It ordered Italy pay Knox $20,000 in damages, costs and expenses.
Since being acquitted, Knox has remained in the spotlight. In June of 2019, Knox returned to Italy to participate in a panel discussion on wrongful convictions - it was an invitation criticized by Kercher's family's lawyer as being "inappropriate." During the conference, she accused the media of building a false narrative around her during the years-long murder trial and appeals process.