An Ivory coast national sought in connection with the murder here of a 22-year-old British exchange student has been arrested in Germany, police sources said.
Rudy Hermann Guede, 21, was arrested on an international warrant issued here on charges of sexual assault and murder.
He 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.
Both Italy and Germany signed the Schengen Treaty which means that Guede's extradition will only be a matter of days.
The body of Meredith Kercher was found November 2 with her throat slashed in the house she shared with three other girls in Perugia.
Three days later police took into custody Kercher's 20-year-old American roommate Amanda Marie Knox; the roommate's 24-year-old Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito; and a 38-year-old pub operator and musician from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lumumba Diya, also known as Patrick.
Last week, police announced that the DNA of the victim had been found on the blade of a knife taken from Sollecito's kitchen and that Knox's DNA was on the handle.
Police also confirmed that a bloody fingerprint and DNA found in Kercher's apartment did not match any of the three in custody and that they were looking for a fourth suspect.
On Monday, police said the fingerprint on Kercher's pillow matched that of Guede, which was on file at the immigration office, and announced that a warrant had been issued for his arrest.
Guede's fingerprints were also found on toilet paper at the crime scene and DNA found in the toilet is said to have matched DNA found in a vaginal swab of the victim.
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.
The Ivory Coast national came to Perugia as a child and spent years in a local foster home.
Because he has a credible alibi and no forensic evidence has been found to implicate Diya, who Knox had accused him of the murder, he is expected to be released soon.
