Court Criticises 'Stunning Flaws' In Knox Case

Italy's top criminal court has criticised prosecutors over the flawed case against Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher.

The Court of Cassation has issued its formal written explanation for the ruling in March which vindicated Ms Knox and Raffaele Sollecito in the 2007 killing of the 21-year-old.

It said there was an "absolute lack of biological traces" of either Ms Knox or Mr Sollecito in Ms Kercher's room at the apartment she shared in Perugia, Italy, with Ms Knox, or on the victim's body.

The high court also cited "blameworthy omissions of investigative activity" and said media furore was also a factor in the ultimately flawed case.

The judges wrote: "The trial had oscillations which were the result of stunning flaws, or amnesia, in the investigation and omissions in the investigative activity.

"The international spotlight on the case in fact resulted in the investigation undergoing a sudden acceleration, that, in the frantic search for one or more guilty parties to consign to international public opinion, certainly didn't help the search for substantial truth."

Ms Knox, now 28, and Mr Sollecito, now 31, were declared not to have murdered Ms Kercher in the March ruling .

If the court had upheld the 2014 appeals court conviction of the pair, she would have faced 28-and-a-half years in prison while Mr Sollecito faced 25 years.

They have always insisted on their innocence.

Rudy Hermann Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was convicted in separate proceedings and is serving a 16-year sentence.

Five judges on the panel on the Court of Cassation found that while there were indications Guede may have had accomplices, the prosecutors' case did not prove either Ms Knox or Mr Sollecito was involved in the murder.

It also said that the lower court ignored expert testimony that "clearly demonstrated possible contamination" of evidence found at the scene and misinterpreted findings about the knife allegedly used to cut Ms Kercher's throat.