Three face Kercher murder charges

Italian prosecutors have asked a judge to charge with murder three suspects held over the killing of the British student Meredith Kercher.

Ms Kercher, 21, a Leeds University student from Coulsdon, Surrey, was found dead in her bedroom in Perugia on 3 November last year.

Prosecutors in the central Italian university town want to charge Amanda Knox, a 21-year-old American; Raffaele Sollecito, 21, her Italian former boyfriend; and Rudy Hermann Guede, 24, a citizen of Ivory Coast. All three deny wrongdoing.

A judge will now have to decide whether to grant the prosecutors' request and order the three to stand trial. A date for the hearing has not been set.

Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito have been in prison since November. Mr Guede was arrested in Germany in November and extradited to Italy the following month.

Ms Kercher was found strangled and stabbed in the house she shared with Ms Knox.