Amanda Knox's ex Rafaelle Sollecito moves to Switzerland 'because the people are discreet', but insists he will return for retrial
Amanda Knox’s former boyfriend has begun a new life in Switzerland, saying that the people there are more ‘discreet’.
Putting hundreds of miles between him and Perugia where it all went so wrong for him, Rafaelle Sollecito has relocated to Lugano, in the Italian-speaking southern Alps.
The 29-year-old intends to start his own business, a company that helps victims of miscarriages of justice, his father Francesco Sollecito confirmed to the Daily Mail.
Sollecito's bags were reportedly
packed even before he learnt that he must face retrial for the murder of
British exchange student Meredith Kercher.
Kercher, 21, from Coulsdon in Surrey, was found dead, her throat slashed, in 2007, in the cottage she shared with Knox in the university town of Perugia.
Sollecito and Knox were sentenced to 25 and 26 years respectively for the murder but were freed on appeal two years later, after judges ruled much of the DNA evidence inadmissible.
But Italy’s highest court last month quashed the appeal court’s ruling, ordering a retrial.
Sollecito, said to be crushed by the
decision, spent Easter in his home village of Giovinazzo, near Bari, in
southern Italy before relocating, hoping he said 'for a quiet life'.
He had been granted residence in Switzerland in January.
‘I already had friends in Switzerland and I like the atmosphere here because people, in general, are discreet,’ Sollecito told Italian newspaper Corriere del Ticino.
He said he has always been treated well by the Swiss and intends to remain in Lugarno permanently.
The engineering and computer science student has not yet finished his degree at the University of Verona, but can complete his studies from his new home.
The retrial, in Florence, will probably take place next year, but Sollecito and Knox, who has remained in her hometown of Seattle, are not obliged to attend.
Only after the event of a confirmed conviction, in the country’s highest court, would Italy demand they return to finish their prison sentences.
But Sollecito has denied suggestions that he was ‘fleeing’ to Switzerland to avoid the retrial and says he intends to come back to fight his cause.
The move comes as Knox prepares to release her million dollar memoir which may well include new revelations about her former boyfriend.
The publication of her book Waiting to be heard has been cancelled in the UK, but will go ahead in the U.S. on April 30.
Putting hundreds of miles between him and Perugia where it all went so wrong for him, Rafaelle Sollecito has relocated to Lugano, in the Italian-speaking southern Alps.
The 29-year-old intends to start his own business, a company that helps victims of miscarriages of justice, his father Francesco Sollecito confirmed to the Daily Mail.
'Moving, but not fleeing': Rafaelle Sollecito
(left), the former boyfriend of Amanda Knox (right), has started a new
life in Switzerland after being told he faces a retrial for the murder
of British student Meredith Kercher in Italy
Looking more peace: Rafaelle Sollecito has
relocated to Lugano (above), in the Italian-speaking southern Alps,
where, he says, the people are more discreet
Kercher, 21, from Coulsdon in Surrey, was found dead, her throat slashed, in 2007, in the cottage she shared with Knox in the university town of Perugia.
Sollecito and Knox were sentenced to 25 and 26 years respectively for the murder but were freed on appeal two years later, after judges ruled much of the DNA evidence inadmissible.
But Italy’s highest court last month quashed the appeal court’s ruling, ordering a retrial.
Victim: Kercher, 21, from Coulsdon in Surrey,
was found dead, her throat slashed, in 2007, in the cottage she shared
with Knox in the university town of Perugia
He had been granted residence in Switzerland in January.
‘I already had friends in Switzerland and I like the atmosphere here because people, in general, are discreet,’ Sollecito told Italian newspaper Corriere del Ticino.
He said he has always been treated well by the Swiss and intends to remain in Lugarno permanently.
The engineering and computer science student has not yet finished his degree at the University of Verona, but can complete his studies from his new home.
The retrial, in Florence, will probably take place next year, but Sollecito and Knox, who has remained in her hometown of Seattle, are not obliged to attend.
Only after the event of a confirmed conviction, in the country’s highest court, would Italy demand they return to finish their prison sentences.
But Sollecito has denied suggestions that he was ‘fleeing’ to Switzerland to avoid the retrial and says he intends to come back to fight his cause.
The move comes as Knox prepares to release her million dollar memoir which may well include new revelations about her former boyfriend.
The publication of her book Waiting to be heard has been cancelled in the UK, but will go ahead in the U.S. on April 30.