Search: Meredith Kercher murder trial
The first evidence in the trial of two former lovers accused of murdering student Meredith Kercher will be heard.
American Amanda Knox, 21, and Italian Raffaele Sollecito, 24, are to appear in court in Perugia, Italy.
An abandoned phone owned by 21-year-old Miss Kercher is expected to be used as evidence as prosecutors begin their case against Knox and Sollecito.
The Leeds University student's semi-naked body was found in her bedroom on November 2 2007, in the house she shared with Knox and others while on her year abroad. Her throat had been slit and her corpse was partially covered by a duvet.
Prosecutors allege Knox and Sollecito participated in the brutal murder after Miss Kercher resisted joining in a sex game with them. Both deny playing any part in the murder of the exchange student from Coulsdon, Surrey.
The neighbours of Knox and Miss Kercher who found the phone are also expected to give evidence for the prosecution in the two-day hearing. The full trial, which began last month and will be held in stages, is expected to last until at least the summer.
Knox and Sollecito have been behind bars in the Umbrian hilltop town for 15 months.
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Sollecito, a student from Bari in the south of the country, recently enrolled for a degree in virtual reality at the University of Verona, Italian newspaper La Nazione reported.
He has reportedly obtained permission to follow the course online from his prison cell.
A third person charged with the murder, Rudy Guede, 21, from the Ivory Coast, was found guilty in October 2008 and sentenced to 30 years in prison after a fast-track trial.
