Italy's highest criminal court on Tuesday overturned Amanda Knox's acquittal in the slaying of her British roommate and ordered a new trial, prolonging a case that has triggered widespread attention in the United States.

Knox called the decision "painful" but said she was confident in the truth.

The Court of Cassation ruled that an appeals court in Florence must rehear the case against the US student and her Italian ex-boyfriend for the murder of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher. The exact issues that have to be reconsidered won't be known until the court releases its full ruling within 90 days.

Knox, now a student at the University of Washington, stayed up until 2 am to hear her fate and issued a statement through a family spokesman.

"It was painful to receive the news that the Italian Supreme Court decided to send my case back for revision when the prosecution's theory of my involvement in Meredith's murder has been repeatedly revealed to be completely unfounded and unfair," the statement said.

She said the matter must now be examined by "an objective investigation and a capable prosecution".

"No matter what happens, my family and I will face this continuing legal battle as we always have, confident in the truth and with our heads held high in the face of wrongful accusations and unreasonable adversity," Knox said.

Lawyers for Knox and her ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, looked grim as they huddled with prosecutors and court officials to get details after the ruling was issued. Lawyers for the Kercher family said they had got what they wanted.

Kercher's body was found in November 2007 in her bedroom of the house she shared with Knox and others in Perugia, an Italian university town where the two women were exchange students. Her throat had been slashed.

Prosecutors alleged Kercher was the victim of a drug-fueled sex game gone wrong. Knox and Sollecito denied wrongdoing and said they weren't in the apartment that night, though they acknowledged they had smoked marijuana, and their memories were clouded.

A man from Cote d'Ivoire, Rudy Guede, was convicted of the slaying in a separate proceeding and is serving a 16-year sentence. Knox and Sollecito were also initially convicted of the murder, and given long prison sentences, but were acquitted on appeal and released.

The high court's ruling on Tuesday overturns the appeals court acquittals.

Italian law cannot compel Knox to return from the US for the new trial. The appellate court hearing the case could declare her in contempt of court but that carries no additional penalties.

It is unclear what will happen if she is convicted in a new appeals trial.

"If the court orders another trial, if she is convicted at that trial and if the conviction is upheld by the highest court, then Italy could seek her extradition," Knox's lawyer, Carlo Dalla Vedova, said.

It would then be up to the US to decide if it honors the request. US and Italian authorities could also reach a deal that would keep Knox in the US.

Knox, 25, and Sollecito, who turned 29 on Tuesday, were arrested shortly after Kercher's body was found in a pool of blood.

The appeals court that acquitted them in 2011 criticized virtually the entire case mounted by prosecutors.

After nearly four years behind bars in Italy, Knox returned to her hometown of Seattle and Sollecito resumed his computer science studies, following the degree he earned while studying in prison.

Italy's judicial system allows for two levels of appeals, and prosecutors can appeal acquittals.

AP-Reuters-AFP

(China Daily 03/27/2013 page11)