PERUGIA – Rudy Guede, the only person definitively convicted for the sexual assault and brutal murder of British Meredith Kercher back on Nov. 1, 2007, was released on parole Saturday evening and shall be returned to prison Tuesday where he is serving a total of 16 years.

 Kercher, a student from the University of Leeds, was on an exchange year in Perugia studying Italian when she was violently attacked, sexually assaulted and murdered. Her lifeless body was found on the floor of her bedroom in the apartment she shared with American student Amanda Knox and two Italians.

 In 2008, Rudy Guede was charged with a sentence of 30 years after his DNA was found all over the crime scene, yet this was significantly reduced to 16 years due to an appeal in 2010.

 Both American Amanda Knox and her Italian boyfriend of only one week Raffaele Sollecito were also initially found guilty and imprisoned for the murder in 2009, believed to have taken part in a dangerous sex game with Kercher that went wrong, yet were freed in 2011 after evidence used by the prosecution was deemed unreliable. Surrounded by a torrent of global media attention, the pair were once again found guilty in 2014 before being eventually acquitted of the charges by the Italian Supreme Court in March last year.

 Guede, on the other hand, despite always protesting his innocence, remains in jail. According to Daniele Camilli, spokesperson for the Centre of Criminology Studies, this is the fourth parole request for the Ivorian, following one in June and another two in August and September.

 This time, however, Guede has been allowed to leave the building. Camilli said, “He can do so for one hour at breakfast, one hour at lunch and one hour at dinner. The rest of the time he must stay inside the Gavac centre (an association of volunteers which temporarily houses incarcerated inmates and their families) where he is studying for a specialist degree in History and Environment at Roma Tre University.” Guede in fact gained a degree in Historical Sciences last July.

 On Saturday evening and Sunday lunch time, Guede dined in two different restaurants in the centre of Viterbo, “choosing local dishes and drinking only Coca-Cola,” says Camilli. “He liked changing restaurants because this is the first time in nine years he has been able to eat outside of the prison walls.” He ate with family and friends and also volunteers from the Centre of Criminology Studies who work with the Viterbo prison.

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