Italy's highest criminal court overturned the acquittal of Amanda Knox in the 2007 murder of her British roommate and ordered a retrial, The Associated Press reported.
The Court of Cassation ruled Tuesday that an appeals court in Florence must re-hear the case against Knox and her Italian-ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito for the slaying of British exchange student Meredith Kercher.
Kercher, 21, was killed in the home she shared with Knox and other roommates in Perugia, Italy. Kercher was found half-naked, with her throat slashed. Several of her belongings, including cash, credit cards and phones, were missing.
Prosecutors alleged Kercher was killed by Knox, Sollecito and an Ivory Coast man named Rudy Guede. Guede admitted having sexual relations with Kercher but denied killing her, CNN reported. He was later convicted in a separate trial and is currently serving a 16-year sentence.
The case became a worldwide sensation that divided public opinion.
Knox, then 20, and Sollecito, then 24, were initially convicted of sexual assault, murder and simulating a burglary, and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Knox received an extra year for calumny for falsely accusing another man of killing Kercher.
The conviction was overturned on appeal in 2011 and both Knox and Sollecito were released from prison.