PERUGIA, Italy — An Italian judge ruled Wednesday that Amanda Knox, a student from Seattle, and her former Italian boyfriend will remain jailed while awaiting trial in the killing of the Knox’s British apartment mate, lawyers said.
Judge Paolo Micheli rejected requests by the defense to grant house arrest to Knox and her ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito. Their trial is scheduled to start Dec. 4.
On Tuesday, Micheli indicted the two on charges of murder and sexual violence in the slaying of 21-year-old British student Meredith Kercher, who was found stabbed in the neck last Nov. 2 in the apartment she shared with Knox in Perugia.
Both Knox and Sollecito have denied wrongdoing.
Defense lawyers had proposed Knox be held at a community for recovering drug addicts and young offenders run by a Roman Catholic charity near Perugia. Prosecutors argued she was likely to flee.
Francesco Maresca, a lawyer for Kercher’s family, said the judge turned down a request for bail in a 17-page ruling. He did not give the judge’s reasoning.
Knox, 21, and Sollecito, 24, have been in custody for almost a year. Sollecito is being held in the nearby city of Terni and Knox is in Perugia.
In addition to ordering their trial Tuesday, the judge convicted Rudy Hermann Guede of Ivory Coast on the same charges and sentenced him to 30 years in prison. Guede, who also denied any wrongdoing, asked for a fast-track trial.
Prosecutors say Kercher died during what began as a sex game. Sollecito is accused of holding Kercher by the shoulders from behind while Knox touched her with the point of a knife and Guede tried to sexually assault her. Prosecutors say Knox then fatally stabbed Kercher in the throat.
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