This is what I got.
Raffaele addresses the court:
Says he's nervous and drinks water before reading his statement. Says he has suffered for years. He's never in his life hurt anybody. The charges against him are so out of character he has always thought sooner or later things will clear themselves up. Instead that din't happen. He had to endure day by day, it's like living in a nightmare, where things aren't right. Many years have gone by and the prosecution has called him Amanda's boyfriend who has killed for no reason.... It's a game of words. When a person has been condemned to life imprisonment, everything in jail at the end of the day is like a death. He has heard that people say he has accused Amanda. That is false. There are words that have been used. That's what his lawyers have said to him... There were like 30 policemen around them for like ten hours. He just wanted to get home and find someone to help them. That is the reason for those statements that night. The weapon has been discussed. People say he has accused Guede. That is false. He has no interest talking about him. He never met him. He never heard his name before the trial. Not an acquaintance. He knows him better from court. He's passed him by in court and that's it. It's silly having to repeat it, but it's the truth. Amanda and he are in jail for over 1400 days. Tiny things reach an enormous importance, like acaress or comforting word. Those are signs of affection, tenderness that in a way for a minute help you forget problems. Amanda's family are here from the other side of the world just to be with her. My family have done everything, sacrifices so he could confront this process and come out of this situation. From the beginning he thought it would be quickly solved, but that hasn't happened. Says the prosecution has never asked him questions, he doesn't know why. He could explain everything, but they never ask. So he's here to say freely the facts he's gone through and what he is.
He was just days from presenting his phd. Then he met Amanda, a beautiful girl. Shining, happy, very sweet. It was the first weekend they were going to spend together. Herboss had given her free time. His friend Jovana had asked him to go to the bus station. Then she said she didn't need it anymore. They were then free that night. Only wish was to spend the evening in tenderness and hugs, nothing else. What we wished was just to be together, nothing else.
They just want to overcome this. Not much to say otherwise. He wants to make an homage if he's allowed. A bracelet that says "Free Amanda and Raffaele" that he's never taken off. It's yellow now. Now is the moment to take it off. This bracelet... there are lots of emotions in it. The wish of justice, the efforts towards light from this black tunnel. Also, the wish of freedom. The bracelet represents the past. New future, new hopes that he thinks they deserve. Thanks the court.
Amanda addresses the court:
"I'ma bit nervous. I'm the same person I was 4 years ago. The only thing different is my suffering. In 4 years I've lost my friends in the most terrible and unexplainable way. My trust in the authorities and police has been damaged. I've had to face charges that are unfair without basis, and I'm paying with my life for something I haven't done. 4 years ago I was younger. But I was also fundamentally younger, because I had never suffered in my life. I didn't know tragedy. It awas something on TV. I never had to face so much fear, tragedy, suffering. I didn't know how to interpret this. Face it. Internalize it when I found out Meredith had been murdered. I couldn't believe it. Howwas it possible? Then I was scared because a person with whom I'd been sharing my life, abedroom next to mine, has been murdered. And if I had been there that night i"d be dead as she is. The only difference was I was at Raffaele's. And also later because I had no one. He was everything to me at that moment. At that time I owe everything to him. I had a sense of duty to the authorities and I trusted them because they were there to find whow as guilty and I trusted them blindly, absolutely. I put myself at their disposal comepletely in those days. The night of the 5th November I had just been arrested, manipulated. I am not what they say I am. Perversity, violence. I repsect life and people, and haven't doe the things they suggest. I haven't raped, murdered, stolen. I wasn't present for that crime. I didn't know Rudy. I remember the police asked me to give a list of all the poeple Meredith and I had met and I mentioned of a black guy that we had met with the boys downstairs, but I didn't even know his name. I never had contact with him. They say I knew him, no. I have never done the things they say I have done. They say 'It just happens like that'. I had a good relationship with my flatmates, I was untidy, but we had a very good relationship. I was sharing ,my life with Meredith. We were friends. We would get worried for me when I would go to work. ALways kimd to me. Meredith has been murdered. And I always wanted justice for her. I never tried toe scape the truth. I insist that after 4 desperate years, our innocence, because it's true and it has to be defended and recognized. I want to go back home, back to my life. I don'r want to be punished, to have my life taken away from me for things I haven't committed because I am innocent. Raffaele is innocent. And (she pauses) I deserve freedom because we have done nothing to deserve this. I have high respect for this court and would like to thank you and for this reason justice."
