NBC News
In an exclusive interview with NBC, Amanda Knox's ex-boyfriend, Rafaelle Sollecito, says he wasn't trying to leave the country after Italian court upheld his murder conviction Thursday.
After his arrest near the border, Rafaelle Sollecito said he had no intention of trying to leave Italy following his latest conviction on murder charges.
The former lover of Amanda Knox told NBC he had been in Austria when the verdict came down Thursday.
"As soon as I got the news there was a guilty verdict ... I came right immediately back (to) Italy," he said.
Sollecito had been in court Thursday morning, but left when the appeals panel adjourned to deliberate charges in the brutal murder of Meredith Kercher, who was Knox's roommate.
Knox's conviction was also upheld Thursday, but she is in Seattle with her family and did not attend the appeals court hearings.
Antonio Calanni/AP
Raffaele Sollecito, left, and his father, Francesco, leave court in Florence, Italy, on Thursday. An appeals panel upheld his murder conviction in the killing of British student Meredith Kircher.
Sollecito said he had already planned a trip to Austria and simply carried out his itinerary Thursday.
He never thought he'd be found guilty again, he told the network.
"It was completely unexpected," he said. "Psychologically, it's devastating."
He is hopeful Italy's highest court will toss his conviction.
"I have to fight until the end," he said.
Marcus Santos/New York Daily News
Amanda Knox appeared on "Good Morning America" Thursday after appeals court in Italy upheld her previous guilty verdict in the slaying of her roommate, British student Meredith Kercher. 'I'm going through waves of emotion,' she said.
Police from city of Udine took Sollecito into custody Friday.
He was in a hotel in Venzone, a small town about 25 miles from the borders of Slovenia and Austria.
He said he had stopped for the night in Venzone because it was the closest town after he crossed the border.
Under his latest conviction, Sollecito is under a travel ban. He surrendered his passport Friday when he was taken into custody.
Then he was released, and his identity card stamped to show he cannot leave the country.
In 2011, an appeals court reversed the couple's convictions. But last March, the acquittals were reversed by the country's highest court for "contradictions and inconsistencies."
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