The family of Raffaele Sollecito, a suspect in the murder of British student Meredith Kercher, said Thursday that leaked testimony claiming he was at the scene of the crime was ''unfounded and unreliable''.
According to the leaked reports, Ivory Coast national Rudy Hermann Guede - who admits to having been at Kercher's house in Perugia when she was murdered on November 1 - told the public prosecutor on Wednesday that he saw Sollecito in the house with a knife in his hand.
Guede also reportedly said he heard the voice of another suspect, Kercher's 20-year-old American flatmate and Sollecito's girlfriend Amanda Marie Knox, from the doorway of the house.
Guede, 21, has always claimed there were two other people in the house that night but previously said that he was unable to identify them.
Sollecito's family say Guede has changed his story because of an upcoming hearing at Italy's highest appeals court, which will decide on April 1 whether the three suspects should continue to remain behind bars as the investigation proceeds.
Sollecito's lawyers on Thursday asked to see the transcript of the three-hour session between Guede and public prosecutor Giuliano Mignini.
''If what has emerged so far is true, we are talking about the act of a desperate man,'' said Luca Maori.
Sollecito and Knox say they were not present when the murder took place.
Kercher, 22, was found with her throat slashed on November 2 in the house she shared with three other girls.
Knox and Sollecito were taken into custody four days later, and on November 20 police also arrested Guede in Germany, where he fled after the murder.
During questioning in December, Guede said he had begun to have sex with Kercher in her bedroom but that they had stopped when Guede realised he did not have a condom.
He said he then went to the bathroom and that Kercher was killed while he was out of the room.
Guede claimed he tussled with her murderer, who was white, had a white hood over his head and was holding a knife.
But at that time he said he did not get a good look at the man's face.
He also said he heard the footsteps of another person in the garden, and as the murderer fled he heard him shout to the other person ''I found that black guy, they'll blame him!''.
In addition to naming Sollecito and Knox as the other people present in the house, Guede reportedly also told the public prosecutor on Wednesday that Knox had a motive for murdering Kercher as the two flatmates hated each other.
He said on the night of her death Kercher noticed that 250 euros were missing from a drawer and that she blamed Knox for the theft.
In January Mignini said he was confident the murder probe would be completed this summer.
Investigators believe that all three suspects played a role in Kercher's death and claim the forensic evidence they have gathered so far is solid.
This evidence is said to include Sollecito's DNA on the victim's bra, which police say definitively places him at the scene of the crime.
The DNA was found on a small piece of cloth cut by a knife close to the bra's fastener.
Guede's DNA was found in the toilet at the murder scene and in a vaginal swab of the victim.
He also left a bloody fingerprint on Kercher's pillow. Forensic tests also identified Guede's DNA on the victim's purse, which had been on her bed, as well as on the cuff of her tracksuit.
Other forensic evidence includes a large kitchen knife found in Sollecito's kitchen which had the victim's DNA on the blade and Knox's DNA on the handle.
DNA belonging to both Knox and Kercher were also identified in a drop of blood found in the victim's bathroom.
A fourth suspect, Democratic Republic of Congo national Diya 'Patrick' Lumumba, 38, was released November 20 after no evidence was found to implicate him in the murder, except testimony by Knox who later retracted her statements.
