The family of murdered British exchange student Meredith Kercher has issued a veiled plea to Amanda Knox to stay away from her grave, as the American prepares to face a fresh trial alongside her Italian ex-boyfriend. 
 
 Almost six years after the 21-year-old from Surrey was brutally killed in the university town of Perugia, an Italian court will on Monday start hearing a fresh appeal against Knox and Raffaele Sollecito's first-grade convictions for her murder. 
 
 Neither defendant will be at Florence's appeal court for the hearing but will be represented by their lawyers. Both have always protested their innocence. 
 
 In a string of recent interviews, Knox has defended her decision not to return to Italy and expressed a desire to visit Kercher's grave. 
 
 But, in a carefully worded statement issued through their Italian lawyer, the British family made it clear Knox's presence would not be welcome. "It took us as a family nearly five years to even begin to feel ready to lay Mez to rest and it is still extremely painful now," said her elder sister Stephanie. 
 
 "However, she now has a place near to us that we and her friends can visit to take flowers and spend time … Her grave is now her safe place to sleep in peace and be with us and we hope that is respected by all." 
 
 Kercher added: "For me, I hope that despite the fact that the case continues, she is resting in peace but, knowing Mez, she will be fighting until the end." 
 
 A Leeds University student in Perugia on a year abroad, Kercher was found dead in November 2007 in the flat she shared with Seattle-born Knox and two Italian women. Her body was covered with stab wounds and her throat had been slit. 
 
 Days after the murder, Knox, now 26, and Sollecito, 29, were placed in preventative detention in jail and, more than two years later, were convicted of the murder. Those convictions were quashed on appeal in 2011 after a court in Perugia found fault with the way the original investigation – particularly its forensic evidence – had been handled. 
 
 To the joy of their families and the jeers of many Italians outside the court, the defendants were released from prison, with Knox flying immediately to Seattle. But in March, Italy's supreme court overturned their acquittals and ordered a fresh appeal to be heard. 
 
 Another man, Rudy Guede, from Ivory Coast, is serving a reduced sentence of 16 years in an Italian prison after opting for a fast-track trial and being convicted of the murder in 2008. 
 
 In its explanation of why a fresh appeal was necessary, the supreme court criticised what it said were the "numerous deficiencies, contradictions and manifest lack of logic" in the first appeal trial. It said the Florence court, which is to be presided over by judge Alessandro Nencini, would have to make "a uniform and global analysis of the evidence" rather than, as it said the appeal trial had done, taking each piece individually and undervaluing some of it. 
 
 Among other suggestions, it re-floated an original theory of the prosecution that Kercher had been killed as part of a group sex game that spun out of control. 
 
 In a series of interviews in the buildup to the new trial, Knox, who is now studying at the University of Washington, has said she is scared of returning to Italy in case the verdict goes against her. "I have plenty to fear because I was already imprisoned wrongfully," she told ITV's Daybreak. "This, as an innocent person, is the ultimate nightmare." 
 
 If the new appeal – which is expected to last months – confirms her conviction and if that were then upheld by the supreme court, Italy could request her extradition from the US. However, observers say that even then it would be unlikely to succeed. 
 
 Knox's co-defendant, Sollecito, will not be in court on Monday either, but his father, Francesco Sollecito, said he would attend later hearings. 
 
 On Friday, Francesco Maresca, the Kercher family lawyer, said of the fresh appeal: "The hopes are to have a complete, total, neutral and balanced trial which can then lead to a sentence which, whatever it is, is properly developed and well-reasoned." ||||| ROME (Reuters) - Italy’s top court said on Tuesday it had ordered a retrial of American Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend in the murder of British student Meredith Kercher because their acquittals contained “shortcomings, contradictions and inconsistencies.” 
 
 Amanda Knox (C) holds hands with her mother Edda Mellas (L) and her younger sister Deanna Knox (R) at a news conference at Sea-Tac International Airport, Washington after landing there on a flight from Italy, October 4, 2011. REUTERS/Anthony Bolante 
 
 Knox and Italian Raffaele Sollecito were initially found guilty of killing the 21-year-old Leeds University student in 2007 during what was described as a drug-fuelled sexual assault, but both were cleared on appeal in 2011. 
 
 In March of this year, Italy’s top appeals court overturned the acquittals and ordered a retrial of a sensational murder case that has prompted harsh criticism of the Italian justice system. 
 
 Explaining its reasons on Tuesday, the Court of Cassation said the judges in the appeals case had underestimated the evidence against the two accused, assessing clues one by one and not stepping back to view the big picture. 
 
 The one person still in jail for the murder, Ivory Coast-born Rudy Guede who is serving a 16-year sentence, may not have committed the crime alone, and the possibility that Kercher was killed during a group sex game would need to be re-examined, the Court of Cassation said. 
 
 Kercher’s body was found with more than 40 wounds, including a deep gash in the throat, in the apartment she shared with Knox in Perugia, in central Italy, where both were studying during a year abroad. 
 
 Knox, now 25 and living back in the United States after four years in an Italian jail, has consistently denied involvement in her roommate’s death. 
 
 Sollecito’s lawyer, Giulio Bongiorno, said: “If there was an erotic game then there needs to be a search for the other people involved, who are certainly not Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox,” news agency Ansa reported. 
 
 SHOCK IN SEATTLE 
 
 Kercher’s lawyers, who have described the acquittal as “contradictory and illogical,” have welcomed the plan for a retrial. 
 
 In Knox’s hometown of Seattle, attorney Anne Bremner, spokeswoman for the group Friends of Amanda, said she was stunned by news that the retrial ruling included reference to a ritualistic sex allegation. 
 
 Knox, dubbed “Foxy Knoxy” in many early media reports, was initially portrayed as promiscuous and dishonest but a lobbying campaign by her family helped change perceptions. 
 
 “I was really surprised,” Bremner said of the ruling. “The prosecutor abandoned (that allegation) back in the trial phase. ... I thought it was the weakest part of the evidence.” 
 
 She added that there was nothing in the case to support such a claim. 
 
 “There is no evidence - hair, fiber, fingerprints, nothing,” she said. “It just doesn’t make any sense. It’s a fantastic allegation.” 
 
 Bremner, who has handled international extraditions in other cases, said it would take years for the legal wrangling to be concluded. 
 
 “The United States could well decide not to extradite her, and Italy could then try her in absentia,” Bremner said. “Say she’s convicted in absentia, then there could be an appeal to the (Italian) Supreme Court again.” 
 
 Unlike law in the United States and some other countries, the Italian system does not contain so-called “double jeopardy” provisions that prevent a defendant being tried twice for the same offence. 
 
 David Marriott, spokesman for the Knox family, declined to comment, saying the family had not yet received an official translation from their attorney in Rome. ||||| International 
 
 Italian Court Orders Retrial For Amanda Knox 
 
 i i itoggle caption Tiziana Fabi /AFP/Getty Images Tiziana Fabi /AFP/Getty Images 
 
 Amanda Knox, the young American whose murder conviction in Italy captured attention around the world, learned Tuesday that Italy's highest court has overturned a lower court's 2011 decision to dismiss that verdict. 
 
 NPR's Sylvia Poggioli tells our Newscast Desk that a retrial has been ordered. So it appears likely the case against Knox and her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, who were charged in the 2007 murder of 21-year-old British student Meredith Kercher, will be heard again. 
 
 But whether Knox, now 25, would appear at such a trial or ever be forced to return to Italy is uncertain. The Associated Press writes that "Italian law cannot compel Knox to return from the U.S. for the new trial. The appellate court hearing the case could declare her in contempt of court but that carries no additional penalties." 
 
 And, the AP adds: 
 
 " '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 Monday. It would then be up to the United States to decide if it honors the request. U.S. and Italian authorities could also come to a deal that would keep Knox in the United States." 
 
 Knox issued a statement Tuesday, the BBC writes, saying, "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. ... 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." 
 
 As Sylvia reports: 
 
 "Prosecutors argued that the decision to overturn the convictions of Knox and Sollecito was flawed. They were arrested in 2007 after Kercher's body was found in a pool of blood in the apartment she shared with Knox in Perugia — where they were exchange students. Kercher's throat had been slashed. "In the first trial, Knox and Sollecito were found guilty and sentenced to 26 and 25 years in jail, respectively. ... In his arguments before Italy's highest court, Prosecutor General Luigi Riello said the appeals court had been too dismissive in casting aside DNA evidence." 
 
 The AP adds that in the original trial, "prosecutors alleged Kercher was the victim of a drug-fueled sex game gone awry. Knox and Sollecito denied wrongdoing and said they weren't even in the apartment that night, though they acknowledged they had smoked marijuana and their memories were clouded. An Ivory Coast man, Rudy Guede, was convicted of the slaying in a separate proceeding and is serving a 16-year sentence." 
 
 Knox has written a memoir, Waiting To Be Heard, that's due to be released April 30. ABC News is already promoting her appearance on the network that evening.
– Amanda Knox's retrial began in Italy today, with Knox herself, of course, not in attendance. Raffaele Sollecito, who was also convicted of Meredith Kercher's murder in 2009 only to see the conviction overturned in 2011, is also staying away. He's in the Dominican Republic with a friend, CNN reports. Neither is required to be present, and though they could be declared in contempt of court, that carries no additional penalties. As for what will happen during these new proceedings, which could take months, the AP explains that the appellate court will likely take a fresh look at the forensic evidence. In deciding to retry the case last year, Italy's supreme court said "a uniform and global analysis of the evidence" was needed. A related narrative making headlines: Knox said in a recent interview that she'd like to be able to visit Kercher's grave, but in a statement yesterday, Kercher's family "made it clear Knox's presence would not be welcome," writes Lizzy Davies for the Guardian. "It took us as a family nearly five years to even begin to feel ready to lay Mez to rest and it is still extremely painful now," the statement reads. "However, she now has a place near to us that we and her friends can visit to take flowers and spend time … Her grave is now her safe place to sleep in peace and be with us and we hope that is respected by all."