American Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito must face a retrial over the killing in 2007 of her UK flatmate, Meredith Kercher, Italy’s highest court has ruled.
Miss Knox and Mr Sollecito spent four years in jail for murder but were freed on appeal in October 2011, largely on the grounds DNA evidence was flawed.
Prosecutors appealed and the Court of Cassation overturned the acquittals.
Rudy Guede was convicted in a separate trial and sentenced to 16 years.
The Ivory Coast national was found guilty of sexually assaulting and stabbing Ms Kercher. He admitted being at the house on the night of the killing in November 2007, but denies murder.
‘Very anxious’
Meredith Kercher, from Coulsdon, south London, had been on a year abroad from Leeds University when she was found semi-naked in her bedroom and with her throat cut in the cottage she shared with Miss Knox.
Prosecutors believed she was killed in a brutal sex game that went wrong.
Addressing the court on Monday, they urged the judges to “make sure the final curtain does not drop on this shocking and dire crime”.
Miss Knox’s Italian lawyer, Luciano Ghirga, said on Monday her client was “very anxious” about the latest hearing.
Miss Knox lives in Seattle and a retrial is likely to take place in absentia, as the US is unlikely to extradite her, analysts say.
Miss Knox and Mr Sollecito were originally sentenced to 26 and 25 years in prison for killing and sexually assaulting Meredith Kercher.