HispanicBusiness

Amanda Knox's lawyers began Thursday their final arguments in her appeals trial for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher in the Italian town of Perugia.

Lawyers were expected to request that the 23-year-old Knox be acquitted for the 2007 killing of Kercher.

Prosecutors have demanded life sentences for the US student and her co-accused, former boyfriend Italian Raffaele Sollecito.

On November 2, 2007 Kercher was found in the apartment she shared with Knox in Perugia -- half-naked, with her throat cut, and covered with more than 40 stab wounds and injuries.

A verdict in the case is expected by early next week.

In 2009, Knox and Sollecito received jail sentences of 26 and 25 years respectively after being convicted of killing Kercher.

The pair are now seeking an acquittal, with defence lawyers centering their case on disputed DNA evidence.

A third person convicted of killing Kercher, Ivory Coast-born Rudy Guede, who had opted for a separate, fast-track trial, was sentenced in 2008 to 30 years in prison.

His sentence was subsequently reduced to 16 years on appeal.

Guede denies any wrongdoing but has admitted he was in the Perugia house the night Kercher was killed. He has also said he saw Knox and Sollecito in the house -- something the two deny.

The trial in Perugia, a picturesque and normally tranquil central Italian university town, has attracted huge international media attention, particularly from the United States and Britain.