Rome, Italy (News Today) - A jailed Italian mobster claims he can prove American student Amanda Knox, her former boyfriend and a drifter are innocent of murdering Knox's British roommate because he knows who the real killer is -- his brother.
Luciano Aviello, 41, made the statement during a videotaped interview with Knox's lawyers.
He said he had tried to write the Italian court several times to say that Knox and the others were innocent, but no one ever contacted him, defense and prosecution officials said.
A source close to the case tells CNN that Aviello, who has been in and out of prison since age 17, was out of prison, living down the street from Knox and Meredith Kercher and under a "protection program" at the time of the murder. Aviello is serving 17 years in an Italian prison because of his association with the Camorra crime family. According to Italian media reports and Britain's Daily Mail, he has testified against the mob at several trials, always from behind a screen to shield his identity.
Kercher, 21, was found semi-naked with her throat slashed in the house she shared with Knox in November 2007.
Knox and her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 25, were found guilty in December 2009 of Kercher's murder and are serving sentences of 26 and 25 years, respectively. A third person, Rudy Guede, a drifter originally from the Ivory Coast, plead guilty to the murder and is serving a 16-year prison sentence.
In March, Aviello contacted Knox's attorneys, who visited him in prison to learn more about his story.
Aviello told Knox's lawyers during the videotaped interviews that his brother, who was staying with him at the time of Kercher's murder, came home one night and said he had killed a girl during a botched robbery. British and Italian media have reported the brother's whereabouts are unknown and neither the lawyers for Knox nor the prosecution would comment further.
"When he came to my house he had a bloodstained jacket on and was carrying a flick knife. He said he had broken into a house and killed a girl and then he had run away," Aviello said in his statement. Originally from Naples, Aviello says he was living in Perugia at the time of the attack.
"I know [he was involved] because my brother confessed to me that he had killed Meredith and he asked me to hide a blood-stained knife and set of keys," he said, according to an attachment to Knox's appeal documents.
Aviello told the lawyers that his brother said he and an Albanian man broke into the house and found "the poor English girl," Kercher and the drifter, Rudy Guede. Aviello said when Kercher saw them she "started screaming like mad"
The brother "stabbed her in the throat then he tried to stifle her screams," Aviello said. "Meredith defended herself like mad, scratching and hitting out at him."
Aviello said he can prove Knox's innocence and his brother's involvement because of evidence he buried at his home.
"I had everything under a little wall behind my house," he said. "I am happy to stand up in court and confirm all this and wrote to the court several times to tell them but was never questioned."
Italian prosecutor Giuliano Mignini, who led the case against Knox and Sollecito, told British and Italian media that Aviello's claims were irrelevant since the court already deemed him not credible and didn't interview him.
Allevio sent the court three letters during the course of the trial, one of which was obtained by CNN.
In the letter, which was sent to the court in 2009, Aviello said he was writing because he wanted to clarify "what the media has distorted" about Knox, Sollecito and Guede's involvement in the crime.
Allevio also said that he met Sollecito while he was in prison and even expressed his "bewilderment" at how out of hand the trial had gotten.
Allevio said in the letter that he knows "the name of the real assassin" because Kercher's death was committed by "persons that are dear to me." He did not identify his brother or anyone else in the 2009 letter, but he has now told Knox's lawyers his brother was the killer.
Mignini told CNN on Thursday he couldn't comment much on Aviello's assertions because "we need to verify his claims, in general, all of what he is saying."
Mignini said he has not yet interviewed Aviello, but will begin looking into his background as part of an investigation. That investigation will include checking out the burial of the key.
Knox's lawyer, Carlo Dalla Vedova, said he hopes a judge will allow Aviello to testify at Knox's appeal hearing, which is likely to take place in the fall.
See the evidence presented in the Knox case
"The court should have vetted the reliability of the person and the worthiness of his claims," Dalla Vedova said. "We have posed again the same request to the appeals court.
In filing an appeal, Dalla Vedova pointed to Aviello's letters to the courts, saying they show Knox was not able to present all the witnesses, and that may have influenced the verdict.
Mignini disputed the claim.
We "can't simply investigate in the course of a trial every claim that comes up," Mignini told CNN.
David Marriott, a spokesman for the Knox family, said that while they don't yet know whether Aviello's claim is valid, he feels it is only right that Knox get to air all the evidence in court.
Even if the story isn't true, Knox and her lawyers should at least get the chance to investigate it and have his claims heard, Marriott said.
"The fact that the court didn't even decide to question him or at least look further into the claims is a part of what Amanda's appeal is all about," he said. "We don't know the truth, but the court has the responsibility to check it out."
Marriott also said he thinks it's possible Aviello's statements weren't checked out because Italian police and prosecutors believed they already solved the case.
"There's no motivation I would guess for the police to actually pursue it," he said, when asked if the keys, clothing or knife Aviello claims were buried were ever dug up. "In their minds not only is it over, but why would they investigate something that might show their initial investigation was faulty."
Source : CNN
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Jailed mobster claims he can prove Amanda Knox is innocent
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Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito repeatedly told the police a pack of lies in the days after Meredith's murder.
On 5 November 2007, Knox and Sollecito were confronted with proof that they had lied and were given another opportunity to tell the truth. However, they both chose to tell the police even more lies.
Sollecito's new alibi was shattered by computer forensic evidence and his mobile phone records.
Knox accused an innocent man, Diya Lumumba, of murdering Meredith despite knowing full well that he was completely innocent. She didn't recant her false and malicious allegation against Lumumba the whole time he was in prison.
Knox's account of what happened on 2 November 2007 is contradicted by her mobile phone records.
Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito both gave multiple conflicting alibis. Neither Knox nor Sollecito have credible alibis for the night of the murder despite three attempt each. At the trial, Sollecito refused to corroborate Knox's alibi that she was at his apartment.
Rudy Guede's bloody footprints led straight out of Meredith's room and out of the house. He didn't lock Meredith's door, remove his trainers, go into Filomena's room or the bathroom that Meredith and Knox shared.
He didn't scale the vertical wall outside Filomena's room or gain access through the window. The break-in was clearly staged. This indicates that somebody who lived at the cottage was trying to deflect attention away from themselves and give the impression that a stranger had broken in and killed Meredith.
Guede had no reason to stage the break-in and there was no physical evidence that he went into Filomena's room.
The scientific police found a mixture of Amanda Knox's DNA and Meredith's blood on the floor.
There was no physical evidence that Rudy Guede went into the blood-spattered bathroom. However, the scientific police found irrefutable proof that Knox and Sollecito tracked Meredith's blood into this bathroom.
Amanda Knox’s DNA was found mingled with Meredith’s blood in three different places in the bathroom: on the ledge of the basin, on the bidet, and on a box of Q Tips cotton swabs.
Sollecito left a visible bloody footprint on the blue bathmat.
Amanda Knox left a bloody shoeprint on the pillow under Meredith's body.
Knox's and Sollecito's bare bloody footprints were revealed by luminol in the hallway. Knox’s DNA and Meredith’s DNA was found mixed together in one of the bloody footprints.
An abundant amount of Raffaele Sollecito's DNA was found on Meredith's bra clasp. Sollecito must have applied considerable pressure to the clasp in order to have left so much DNA. The hooks on the clasp were damaged which confirms that Sollecito had gripped them tightly.
Amanda Knox's DNA was found on the handle of the double DNA knife and a number of independent forensic experts - Dr. Patrizia Stefanoni, Dr. Renato Biondo and Professor Francesca Torricelli - categorically stated that Meredith’s DNA was on the blade.
Sollecito knew that Meredith's DNA was on the blade which is why he twice lied about accidentally pricking her hand whilst cooking.
The defence experts were unable to prove that there had been any contamination. Alberto Intini, head of the Italian police forensic science unit, pointed out that unless contamination has been proved, it does not exist.
Amanda Knox voluntarily admitted that she involved in Meredith's murder in her handwritten note to the police on 6 November 2007. She stated on at least four separate occasions that she was at the cottage when Meredith was killed. She also claimed that Sollecito was at the cottage.
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