An Ivory Coast national arrested in Germany in connection with the murder of a 22-year-old British exchange student in Perugia last month will be extradited to Italy, a German court decided on Monday.
Rudy Hermann Guede, 21, was arrested November 20 on an international warrant issued by Italian authorities on charges of sexual assault and murder.
The warrant was issued after his fingerprints and DNA were identified at the scene of the crime and on the victim.
Guede's attorney Walter Biscotti said the German court's decision had been ''expected''.
No exact date was given for the extradition which observers believe will take place between the end of this week and the beginning of the next.
Meredith Kercher was found November 2 with her throat slashed in the house she shared in Perugia with three other girls.
Police later arrested Kercher's 20-year-old American roommate Amanda Marie Knox, the roommate's 24-year-old Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito and Democratic Republic of Congo national Diya 'Patrick' Lumumba, 38, on suspicion of murder.
Lumumba, a long-time Perugia resident and pub operator, was released for lack of evidence the same day Guede was arrested.
A preliminary hearings judge in Perugia on Friday confirmed the arrests of Knox and Sollecito and ordered that they remain in prison.
Guede was identified and taken into custody by German police after being discovered without a ticket on a train between the town of Mainz and the the central German city of Wiesbaden.
The former semi-professional basketball player is believed to have left Perugia for Milan the day Kercher was killed.
Milan is the last place his cellphone had a signal.
A warrant was issued for Guede's arrest after police identified a bloody fingerprint left on Kercher's pillow as his.
Guede's fingerprints were also found on toilet paper at the crime scene and his DNA matched DNA found in the toilet of the crime scene and in a vaginal swab of the victim.
Guede has admitted that he had sex with Kercher but claims he was in the bathroom when the murder was committed.
He reportedly also told police he saw the murderer, who he claimed was white, and had scuffled with him before running away.
The Ivory Coast national also claimed that he had tried to help Kercher but had then panicked and fled the scene when he realised she was dead.
Investigators are still trying to determine the motive for Kercher's murder and working on hypotheses related to sexual activities and theft.
