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what can we do for you? >> and now, "bbc world news." >> these are the live shots outside the court with the lawyer for rafael sollecito, one of two people accused of murder. >> that has been used when the police have the genetic profile of the defendant, and therefore, they find a track and then they ask this d.n.a. was the scene of the crime and

the track of the defendant can be compared with the track that they have found of the scene of the crime. because there's the scene of the crime and a lot of people couldn't be identified. they clearly have the genetic profile raffaele, and i asked myself if it was consistent with the track, and the answer is probably yes. but if the same had been done without the people, the answer would have been the same. this is the odd thing. it was a mixed track, and the number of unidentified people could have been identified with that track, that track, because it is a very confused track. there are a number of profiles in that track. now, if i ask myself then i'm

going to answer yes, but even the expert can be seen in that track. >> that was the lawyer for raffaele sollecito, making a statement, as you can see, outside the courtroom. he and amanda knox have made very emotional statements proclaiming their innocence. in the murder charges of a 21-year-old demrish student. watching their statements with me, mike wooldridge. look at the press interest, mike. it's absolutely incredible. we are going to get a verdict, but not before this evening. >> that's right. i mean, that kind of media attention, of course, we've heard in many ways throughout the whole trial, and what we've really had today is both amanda knox and raffaele sollecito trying to defend their characters as much as to protest, once again, their innocence in this case, to try

to suggest to the judge and jurorser who now weighing up the whole case that they could not have been associated with that level of brutality. >> sorry so interrupt. we're going to listen to this statement from outside the court. >> absolutely fair and i'm not going to say anything else on that. this is -- what has been said during the first and second degree trial, we've heard about it now, we have different opinion anyway. what will the judge have to do in order to say that they are guilty? well, i'm not going to suggest anything to the judges.

i can only say that they've heard from every party what has been done during the trial. they have all the elements and factors at their disposal in order to make a decision. the kerchers have accepted the first degree verdict for the court to be blamed. the kerchers want the sentence to be confirmed. i believe that this is right. we have just a few hours away from the final verdict, and we

are only hearing statements related to acquittal if there was something taken for granted. however, we fully try the court of appeal, he will have some influence, it is an extra element that the court of appeal has at its disposal. it would have to be analyzed together with the other factors that we have been highlighting within the court of appeal. it's not judgment day, it is an important try, involving two young people because of some

dreadful death of a young woman . it's not judgment day. they have completely different wait, so let's not use these comparisons. her defense counsel said something that was totally legitimate. she lives in the states. unless she is convicted, she will be able to go wherever she wants to. could she leavitt lee immediately if she was acquitted? yes, it is one of her rights. the kerchers have followed the

first degree trial, lastly for 10 months. they followed the second degree trial, and i think the trial has been fairer and the kerchers are fully satisfied by what has been done with the judges. i don't think so. i believe that it is a tense time. there are going to be more emotions because they're waiting for the verdict. they have a number of hours to wait for. then the desire is to remember meredith outside courtrooms.

yes, the brother and as well. thank you. >> so, the lawyer for the family of meredith kercher saying that the family is fully satisfied with what has been going on in the courts, carried out by the judges. also confirming after speculation about amanda knox, because if she was to be freed, he said, she would be able to leavitt lee. that's within her right. she could go back to her home in america. if that were to happen, is there a right of appeal by the prosecution? >> i believe there are further avenues of appeal, this may not necessarily be the end of it. >> because amanda knox would then ever come back to italy? >> exactly. the suggestion we just heard

there from the kercher family is backing that idea. >> that she be free to go. >> further avenues are open, and indeed, she would be free to go. but yes, you're absolutely right. that lawyer there for the kercher family really reminding us that they simply weren't happy with that original trial. they want the original sentence confirmed. you would expect that, that that's what they're looking for. although we have heard the prosecution arguing the case for lengthening the sentence, which is, indeed, one of the possibilities before the jury and judges that are now out considering the whole affair. so, it's a very unpredictable day, a very tense day, of course, with an extraordinary media spotlight on the whole business once again. and making those very emotional -- that emotional pleading from both amanda knox -- >> and the judge said there will be no verdict for some hours. we also did hear a few minutes

ago outside court from the counsel showing the bracelet that he had brandished in court, trying to say this was evidence of some feelings of tenderness between the two key defendants. >> affection between them rather than simply a sexual relationship, that's right, and in a way, we heard amanda knox herself saying i'm not the person that they say i am, perverse and violent, trying to argue that she was indeed a good friend of of the person who was killed, saying that -- she was untidy, careless, yes, in the flat, but this didn't affect their friendship. throughout everything we've heard this morning, as strong as anything else, has been the attempt to build up the character, to have it regarded as unbelievable that they could have in any way participated in this killing. >> well, it's been four years. you can see, mike, the massive interest outside court, there

still is from journalists around the world. let's bring you a clip of amanda knox's opening of her statement to that court. >> i am not who they say i am. the perversion, the violence, the lack of respect for life, and i did not do the things they're saying i did. i did not kill, i did not rape, i did not steal. i was there. i wasn't there at the crime. >> and mike, we saw her also saying that she's had to deal with these unfair charges. she's paying with her life for things that she did not commit. and very much saying she never

suffered before, and therefore, didn't know how to react, obviously addressing fears over the pictures of her kissing her former boyfriend. >> yes, that's absolutely right, argument on that being that she was there, but has been betrayed. i had faith in the authorities, i had faith in justice in the country, her argument was that there was a miscarriage on her family's argument, defense lawyers' argument, there's been a miscarriage of justice in the case, dealing with the evidence and so on. the prosecution, of course, has been denying that. so that's all at the heart of this. it was interesting from the raffaele sollecito lawyer, who we heard from just a few minutes ago outside the court, referring to a clasp. perhaps that's one of the things that symbolizes the dispute here. that was the bra clasp of meredith kercher that was picked up by investigators at the scene of the crime only several weeks afterwards, and it was suggested that that had d.n.a. on it.

but there were independent experts who were brought before the appeal court arguing all that d.n.a. work, the d.n.a. traces were simply too low for that to be used as evidence, so they tried to probe away that they had no actual evidence that they were present. >> the prosecution basically had circumstantial evidence, because the forensic ed, the court has been invited to disregard that, although it's up to them whether they follow that or not, and we've heard two very highly charged statements from the defendant. >> precisely that, and then overlaid with that that these are simply two people arguing for themselves, that they have the personal of a character they couldn't associate themselves with such a brutal killing. let's not forget once again that meredith kercher, her body found with 43 knife wounds and bruised and evidence of sexual assault. they're trying to say this is not something we could ever have been associated with. >> let's listen to amanda knox's final part of her

statement. >> i want to go back to my life . i don't want to be punished. i don't want my life and my future taken away for something that i did not do, because i am innocent. and rafaelee is innocent too. we did not deserve this. because we never did anything to deserve this.

i have the utmost respect for this court and the care it has shown for this trial, so i would like to thank you, and this is what i'm asking you, justice. >> amanda knox there speaking, obviously, breaking up at some point. she was very tearful at the beginning and partway through her statement. her former boyfriend, raffaele sollecito, also made this appeal to the court, describing how they were spending 20 hours a day in a little cell, trying to pant a picture of these two innocents really stuck in these hellish circumstances. >> that's absolutely true. and indeed, going back to the events on the night, insisting they were simply together during that time when the crime was committed and also saying that they were simply stroking and cuddling. they wanted to leave the world

outside, he said, at one point on that particular night. again, trying to pick up the picture that they were not of any frame of mind that could possibly have connected them with this. so, in essence, very much the same lines of argument. i thought there was one other interesting point where he said investigators said that i had accused amanda at one point, and he said that is simply not true. so, he went back once again to pick out that and one or two other points in the whole investigation. but this was less -- and his was a shorter presentation than amanda knox's as well, this was not going back over all the evidence, just one or two points, that obviously they felt particularly strongly about, but it was more about trying to defend their personalities. >> and he said that this is mr. nobody, as he was being described, amanda's boyfriend who killed for nothing, and he's been given a life sentence effectively or death penalty

effectively by being in jail, saying that he didn't know rudy, also brandishing this bracelet. let's hear a little bit about what he said. >> this bracelet says amanda free. i've never removed this bracelet ever since i was given it. it's become a little bit yellow, but it's not ready. i think it's time to take it off. this bracelet carries a number of emotions, the desire for justice, the efforts, the path,

weave been walking along this dark tunnel, and the light at the end of the tunnel is very far away. there's also the wish to be free, and there's also the affection, the tenderness that we have shown each other ever since we met. this bracelet belongs to the past. i'd like it to represent the past, and i hope there's going to be hope for amanda and

myself. it's going to be a new future. which i think we deserve. >> raffaele sollecito speaking in court a few moments ago. let's speak to our correspondent who's there for us. the prosecutors have basically tried to keep this couple behind bars, saying this was a gruesome finale to the extreme sex game that was forced on meredith kercher. these two have offered up very emotional defenses, haven't they? >> they were very emotional appeals. we heard the judges and jury, these two were really speaking for their lives, really, speaking for their freedom, because they have already been in prison for four years, and they've really been at the mercy of the italian legal system, which has dragged on very slowly indeed.

they were in prison for about a year before the first trial, their murder trials. that took about a year. then it was another year before the appeals started, though these appeals have been going on for some nine months. so, it has taken a long time to get to this point. of course, they've both been here before. they've both faced judgment day here at the court in perugia before. now, once they had finished speaking this morning, they were both returned to their respective prisons. we saw the prison ban just coming back up here where we're standing, sirens blazing, so they will have to wait out today in their cells and in their prison. amanda knox is at a prison just outside perugia, and raffaele sollecito is at a prison a little further away, but they will wait there. and when we get a better idea of when the verdict might be,

they will be returned to the court here so that they can be inside the court to hear the sentence, the verdicts themselves. >> we heard from the kercher family seniors -- sisters to say if amanda knox is released, she's free to go home to the u.s. can the prosecution then appeal again and summons her back? >> that's right. the legal process won't actually end here. if she is acquitted, as we heard, it was confirmed she will be able to go free immediately. and i understand the procedure will be this -- if she's acquitted, the prosecutor will fax the prison to confirm the acquittal. she will then have to return there to be discharged. that would take her about two hours, a couple of hours, we think, and then she would be free to go. and we understand that amanda and her family are booked on a commercial flight out of italy.

there has been a lot of speculation that a private jet had been booked for them, possibly paid for by an american network to whisk them back to america so that amanda could immediately start with interviews. that has now been denied by the knox family. they will be on a commercial plane. and if they do that, yes, we expect that the prosecution will then appeal. they can appeal to the supreme court. but they will have to wait 90 days for the judges to actually publish their sentencing report, and it's only after that that they can move on to the next stage of appeals. >> many thanks indeed. we will, of course, bring you that verdict when it comes. the judge at the court said it cannot come, if it comes today at all, for at least about nine hours or so, so we will bring you all the latest from perugia in that appeal trial of amanda knox and her boyfriend, raffaele sollecito. wee been bringing you special

coverage of that case, but let's try to bring you a quick look at some other news around the world. in afghanistan, the u.s. withdraws one militant group, the haqqani network, now seems to be vying for position. the u.s. recently went public with long-held views that the haqqanis are supported by the pakistani intelligence service, the i.s.i. that's despite the fact that pakistan is supposed to be an u.s. ally. now the man thought to be the current militant group leader, siraj haqqani, denies that link. he answered questions put to him by the bbc. nick charles has the story. >> the residents of kabul sent scurrying by a sustained attack last month on targets in the city, including the u.s. embassy. it and many other high-profile attacks in the capital have been blamed on the haqqani network, and in its aftermath, america's top military officer says the organization was, in effect, acting as an arm of pakistani intelligence,

supposedly a u.s. ally. now, in an interview obtained by the bbc, the leader of the network denies such a connection and the admirable's charge. >> the intelligence services and others when we were fighting the soviets, we've had contacts with many countries' intelligence services since then, but none to our benefit. >> siraj haqqani said his organization has been impacted by others, including the united states, to persuade it to stop fighting and join peace talks. but the shock assassination a fortnight ago, the former afghan president and peace negotiator has cast new doubts over that whole strategy. the haqqani network has been blamed for that killing, too, although its leader denies it. it's still widely assumed the haqqani network receives support and sanction wary across the border in pakistan. some say the organization is simply a ruthless criminal gang, but siraj haqqani insists

it remains loyal to the taliban and gets its orders from its head, mullah omar. >> mullah omar is our leader, and we obey him. within the taliban movement for islamics, we are gin certain specific tasks. we carry them out according to the emirates' rules and regulations. >> for the nato-led forces in afghanistan, haqqani network remains one of their most determined and deadly foes, even though the alliance said this weekend that it had captured the network's military commander in the country, who happens to be siraj haqqani's uncle. nick charles, bbc news. >> the greek government has said it has no chance of meeting its financial deficit target either this year or next. a statement after an emergency cabinet meeting said there was a $2.5 billion hole in the budget because the economy was in a far worse state than predicted. this was after a draft budget was approved for 2012. much more on our big news, of

course, today at the website, bbc.com/news. more there on the appeal of amanda knox. >> make sense of international news at bbc.com/news. >> funding was made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. union bank. and shell. >> this is kim. about to feel one of his favorite send sation. -- sensations. at shell, we're developing more efficient fuels in countries

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