BERLIN – The latest suspect in the Italy sex slaying of a British college student insisted Wednesday that he was innocent — but told a German court he would not fight extradition, a prosecutor said.
A judge ordered Rudy Hermann Guede, 20, held during extradition proceedings. Two others remain jailed in Italy in connection with the slaying, including the victim's roommate, University of Washington student Amanda Knox.
Guede told the court "that he is innocent and had nothing to do with the crime" but would not fight extradition, Koblenz prosecutor Karl-Rudolf Winkler said. He should be sent to Italy within about a week, he said.
Guede is wanted in Italy for the sexual assault and fatal stabbing of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher, found dead Nov. 2 in her blood-spattered bedroom in the Perugia apartment she shared with Knox.
An autopsy found that Kercher likely died slowly from a stab wound to her neck. Italian authorities have said they found Knox's DNA on the handle of a knife believed to have been the murder weapon and Kercher's DNA on the blade.
The knife came from the kitchen of a house where Knox's Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito — also a suspect in Kercher's killing — lives in Perugia, authorities said.
Investigators began searching for another suspect after bloody fingerprints found on Kercher's pillow and on toilet paper in the house did not match prints for Knox or Sollecito. The manhunt led to Guede, a native of Ivory Coast living in Italy, who was tracked to Germany through a friend, Italian investigators said.
Guede was stopped in Mainz, Germany, for riding a train without a ticket and arrested Tuesday.
A hearing is scheduled for Nov. 30 in Perugia to hear defense requests to release Knox and Sollecito from jail.
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