Prosecutors on Friday requested the indictments of an American and two other suspects on charges of murdering a British college student in Italy.
Prosecutors in Perugia requested that Amanda Knox, 21, of Seattle; her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito; and Ivory Coast citizen Rudy Hermann Guede be tried in connection with the death of Meredith Kercher. The prosecutors spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity as required by their office.
Kercher, a 21-year-old student from Leeds University in England, was found dead in November from a stab wound to the neck in the house she shared with Knox in the university town of Perugia, in central Italy.
All three suspects have denied any wrongdoing.
Knox's lawyer, Luciano Ghirga, said the request had been expected and did not offer further comment.
A judge will have to decide whether to grant the prosecutor's request and order the three to stand trial. A date for the hearing has not been set.
"We think our client is innocent, but it would have been a dream to hope the prosecutor would drop the charges," said Sollecito's defense lawyer, Luca Maori.
Knox and Sollecito have been jailed since November. Guede was arrested in Germany in November and extradited to Italy the following month.
Prosecutors say the three suspects strangled and stabbed Kercher, according to a court document that notified defense lawyers last month that the investigation was closed. The document said Guede engaged in sexual violence with Kercher, with the help of Knox and Sollecito.
According to the prosecutors, Knox and Sollecito also tried to make it look like the apartment was burglarized to cover up the crime.
No details have emerged on possible motives.
Both Knox, a student at the University of Washington, and Sollecito have given conflicting statements, saying they had smoked hashish the night of the slaying, according to other court documents.
Sollecito has said he was at his own apartment in Perugia, working at his computer. He said he does not remember if Knox spent the whole night with him.
Knox has insisted she was not at home during the slaying. Her DNA was found on the handle of a knife that prosecutors say might have been used in the slaying, while Kercher's DNA was found on the blade.
DNA testing also has found that Guede, whose fingerprint was found in bloodstains on Kercher's pillow, had sex with Kercher the night she died, prosecutors say.
Guede, 21, has acknowledged being in the woman's room that night. But he denied having killed her and accused an unidentified Italian of trying to frame him.