Raffaele Sollecito HARDtalk


Raffaele Sollecito

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They'll be a full bulletin at the top of the hour. Now it is time for

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Welcome to HARDtalk, six years ago, a young English student Meredith

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Kercher was murdered in Italy. They investigated and judicial process

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that followed was fundamentally flawed. Two people, Meredith's

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American flatmate Amanda Knox and her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito

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spent years in prison. Two years ago, they were acquitted on appeal.

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Later this month, they would be retried by a fresh appeal Court in

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Florence. Our guest Florence. Our guest today is

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Raffaele Sollecito. His story has made lower at headlines around the

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world, how will it end? Thank you for giving me this

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opportunity. You have been through Thank you for giving me this

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murder then acquitted Thank you for giving me this

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going back. It is not the prospect, it is reality. September 30. You

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look calm. How do you feel? I always look calm, because it

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personality. I am quite tranquil. I normally positive about situations.

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How I feel, it is hard to explain, but it is very helpful because I

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feel my life is still beyond the trial for a long—lasting time. There

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is this destiny or weird situation where it is playing with my life.

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You call it a bad nightmare that does not seem to have an end. Is it

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a nightmare that replays the central moment every day in your head? Is

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there a day that goes by where you do not reflect about what happened

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on the 1st of November 2007 when Meredith Kercher was brutally

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murdered? I don't think every day about it. I know what happened to me

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and Amanda are today. I don't know what happens to Meredith that they,

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which is quite different. We are completely off this crime. I always

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think about what brought me inside think about what brought me inside

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this nightmare and this ordeal. this nightmare and this ordeal. The

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people who were so interested to bring me inside this nightmare. They

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want me to be there. Yes, that is an interesting point,

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long years. How does it make you fresh appeal at the

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long years. How does it make you feel that Meredith's family still

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think that you should go before another trial? I am very sympathetic

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to their suffering, because I cannot imagine... I have lost my mother,

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but it is different. To lose my sister, for instance, I think it

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will get completely crazy. On the other side, I am begging to look at

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the logic and fact of the situation, don't stick by... What framed us

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was... The prosecution love so much and there are still somebody there

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who loves this which has no ground at all. You beg, as you say, you beg

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everybody, including the Meredith Kercher family to look at the

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facts. Let's go back to the facts that we know from November 2007 when

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Meredith's body was found brutally murdered in the flat that she shared

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with your girlfriend, Amanda Knox. You and Amanda have always said that

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you were not fair on the night that she was killed. But the reason, it

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seems to me, that the police did not believe you and chose to regard you

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as targets of their investigation was that in the days that followed

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the murder, your story and Amanda's story seemed to contradict each

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alibis, but they don't they seemed alibis, but they don't they seemed

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to fall apart. Why is The process is quite complicated. I cannot

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experience too. We were asked to be in

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first day. Me and Amanda, we were the only ones who were the first

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people inside the apartment the concentrating on us at first because

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day after the murder. concentrating on us at first because

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of that. Then, they asked Amanda and me, mostly Amanda, about Meredith's

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life as Amanda was the closest person to Meredith at that time.

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They were friends. Basically, they concentrated on Amanda, because she

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was the person who knew much better than anybody else Meredith's life

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and that as a starting point for them to do an investigation. The

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reason... Yellow mac know. Became convinced that there was something

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about you and Amanda that did not hang together and that your story

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was questionable was because you said, after intense questioning,

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that you didn't believe Amanda was with you on the night of the murder,

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you signed a statement to that effect. Amanda then signed a

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statement saying that she had statement saying that she had

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actually been in the flat. I was reaching the point, I'm just telling

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you that process. After six days, we were asked to go to the police

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station again. For me, that was the second time that I was questioned.

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For Amanda, it was the fifth time that she was questioned. We never

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had lawyers by our side, because we were not under investigation. We

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were not suspected, at all. When we were there, and for me it was the

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second time, the first time I told the truth. The first time, there are

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statements that I gave to the police where I said that I spent the night

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with Amanda at my apartment. I'd mac with Amanda at my apartment. I'd mac

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I know. It is a simple seems to be a time when the police

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stopped regarding you as a witness, Why did you change your story? I

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proximity, and became convinced didn't want to change my story. They

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put me there and they asked me the question is will stop. They started

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saying, Amanda is telling a lots of lies, where were you that day? They

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were asking me to get to the police station late at night and I didn't

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know the reason why, but I was tranquil and they would never ask

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me... Add—ins know why they need me. They twisted the reality, they

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didn't want me to realise what they were talking about, because I didn't

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know anything and just saying what happened that day, which day? All of

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the days were all the same. So, you became confused. I became completely

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confused. I understand what you confused. I understand what you were

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detail of the case, I just want to detail of the case, I just want to

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focus on one other element that people would want me to ask you

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about and that is simply this. Your behaviour and Amanda Knox's

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behaviour in the hours and the days that followed the discovery of the

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murdered body of Meredith Kercher seemed strange. It seemed strange to

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the police and to other friends of the police and to other friends of

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Meredith's. They all commented on how you didn't seem very concerned.

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you and Amanda kissing just hours We saw

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and pulling faces, even as she was facing more questioning. Why is it

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that you and she behaved in that facing more questioning. Why is it

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not just randomly say all of this together. The kissing, right after

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the murder, was not a passionate kiss, it was to comfort her as she

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was alone. I didn't kiss her, it was a short kiss, it was not a

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long—lasting kiss like a passionate one. The instance, the cartwheel in

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the police station, she was waiting for five hours, alone in the

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corridor, and there was nobody there for five hours and she didn't know

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that there was somebody watching her. So, basically, I wasn't there,

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but I realised that what she did was because of doing nothing for hours,

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she felt the need to stretch her body. Those

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she felt the need to stretch her body. Those behaviours, are

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completely and randomly don't mean anything about the murder. Don't

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mean anything about the murder, understand what you are saying. But

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you have had a long time to reflect and in a recent book that you wrote

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back he could be accused of, at that back he could be accused of, at that

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time, being naive and reckless. Looking back, how do you believe you

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were reckless and how did that play into the police's growing conviction

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surreal. Everything was surreal. I surreal. Everything was surreal. I

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didn't see Meredith's body, I didn't realise anything. I didn't realise

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everything that was around me. You I talk about me, I didn't

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everything that was around me. You are 23. Boast 23—year—olds...If

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they were seeing a murder like that, they probably would have

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regarded your point, but I am saying that I

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did not realise as I did not see the scenes, I didn't see the scene of

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the murder, I didn't know the murder, I didn't know

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Meredith... Let me ask you. We are talking about you, not Amanda Knox

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and I think in the course of this interview we will discuss how you

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always, in the end, been always, in the end, been

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characterised as the boyfriend, Amanda Knox's boyfriend, that was

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true during the investigation and the trial. Here is the question

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based on that, you couldn't really say that you knew Amanda Knox very

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well, you couldn't really trust Amanda Knox as you had only known

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her for nine days. Did it ever cross your mind that Amanda Knox could

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have been involved in some way? Basically not, because realise after

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a while that that night, the night they were talking about, was the

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night we spent the night together. I've realised that she was with me,

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woman for nine days and yet for the woman for nine days and yet for the

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last six years, your name and hers have been tied together. Does it

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strike you as strange that still, even today, with the retrial and the

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appeal coming up, you and Amanda appeal coming up, you and Amanda

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Knox are still, in a sense, ties together? It bores me.It bores you?

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Yes, because want to move on. It has lasted six years. It is an offer me.

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—— enough for me. For years in prison, for our crime that you

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among the rapists and the mafiosi in insisted you did not and could not

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among the rapists and the mafiosi in prison, with whom you had to share

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very nice to me. Some of the are people who helped me.

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very nice to me. Some of the prisoners, I became a mascot for

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them because I am in educated, unlike the medium population. You

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were unusual in the prison? I was, because it was a maximum security

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prison. When you got the news that the appeals court had ruled that you

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had to be leased and your conviction had been overturned, your father

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said something interesting. He said, what we hope for is that he may

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return to anonymity. If that is what you wanted, white if you decide to

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write a book? —— why did you decide. I've wrote the book because there

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was a lot of misinformation and misinterpretation of the facts.

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After the acquittal, the After the acquittal, the

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exoneration, still people were saying things that were completely

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wrong. I'm just thinking about the decision you took to write the book.

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How much were you paid? Cannot disclose the amount. —— I cannot. It

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is very private. I was paid for is very private. I was paid for the

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work and I'd deserved all of it work and I'd deserved all of it for

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my debt. I still have debts, legal fees. We have spoken about Meredith

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Kercher's family and the degree to fees. We have spoken about Meredith

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Kercher's family and the degree to which you can empathise with them.

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We know from public statements that they were not happy when Amanda Knox

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We know from public statements that received a large sum of money for

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writing a book. It is fair to say that they would not

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consider their feelings in the way they heard that you were writing

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consider their feelings in the way you make decisions? I am telling the

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story about the experience I've story about the experience I've

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passed through. I'm writing a book about the case. Why am telling the

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truth —— I am telling the truth about what I've experienced. I've

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wrote an explanation because the attention on this case was worldwide

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and this book about me worldwide, so why have the right to talk about

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myself. —— I have the right. You are Italian, unlike Amanda Knox. You

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have written about your concerns about the Italian judicial system

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and how you feel that it failed you, and how you feel that it failed you,

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and yet your family still lives and how you feel that it failed you,

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Italy, and you now face the prospect of this new appeals trial in

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Florence on September the 30th. Do you feel sufficient confidence in

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that process to go back to Italy and face that trial? I will be back, but

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the first hearing will tell us everything. If you know the system,

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you will understand. The Italian system, the judges, if they are

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convinced of something, that becomes the truth, whatever it is.

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Basically, what happens is candidly random for

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The first hearing will be very The first hearing will be very

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technical. So why will not be —— I will not be doing it. But in the

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core of the core of the trial, I am Italian and

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noticed that you have spent a lot of time out of Italy since being

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noticed that you have spent a lot of released.

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time in Switzerland and the United States. I suppose there is the

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Italy, where, if the worst happened there is no

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Italy, where, if the worst happened from your point of view, and after a

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long process of appeals trial, they decided that you were guilty, the

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safest place for you to be might be in that third country. Have you

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thought about that? Basically, I'm not thinking about the worst case.

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I'm thinking in a positive manner. I have a clear conscience and the

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facts are there. But do not want to put you in a corner, but can you say

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to me, clear and simple, that you guarantee that when this trial

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becomes very pressing and decisions are going to be made, that he will

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be there in Italy? —— you will be there. I can tell you that will be

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in Italy. —— I will be in Italy. in Italy. —— I will be in Italy.

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Something that interesting about your presence in

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the UK, you have said that you would like the chance to visit Meredith

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Kercher's grave. You are in Britain right now. Is that something you

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will try to push you? —— her shoe. Yes, but they do not feel that this

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is the right moment. I wanted to do that when everything was over. But

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it is still not over. At this it is still not over. At this

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particular moment, particular moment, I am not

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comfortable enough to do that. Have you made any effort to contact and

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reach out to the family? Yes, I did. reach out to the family? Yes, I did.

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I've wrote a letter. The letter reach out to the family? Yes, I did.

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from Claire positive. —— they are representative. What did you say?In

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the first period, the first week, after we were arrested I ask them, I

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said I felt a lot of sympathy and compassion for Meredith's family,

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and told them at that time that was and told them at that time that was

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confident that the truth will come out very soon. I told them that was

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not responsible. —— I was not responsible. So why would like to

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talk to them, and did not get a response. My family, after the

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exoneration, my sister who speaks English tried to approach Meredith

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Kercher's family, and they did not want to talk. It is fair to say that

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none of this would have happened to you if you had not met Amanda Knox

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in Perugia six years ago. I in Perugia six years ago. I

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understand that point. Do you know wish that you had not met Amanda

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Knox? No. I mean, I do not take anything to her. It is not her

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fault. This nightmare is not her fault. You can tell from the

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statements, there were statements, and you can listen to the

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recordings. Until you have recordings. Until you have

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experienced an interrogation with nobody on your side, but all the

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bullies against you, you will never get it. You will never understand it

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completely. Because of that bond, is the

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between you and Amanda Knox? —— is between you and Amanda Knox? —— is

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there still. There is a normal friendship. We did not know each

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other. It was not just a blossoming romance, a teenage romance. We did

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not know each other. And now we each other a little bit better, just

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a little bit. And we are friends, we are normal friends. You have called

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the six and nightmare throughout this interview. Do you see an end to

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this nightmare? —— you have called this experience a nightmare. I do

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not know. Irony do not know. —— I not know. Irony do not know. —— I

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really do not know. I am still trying to see the light. Somewhere,

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it is somewhere but do not know where. Raffaele Sollecito, thank you

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