Meredith Kercher suspects moved to separate jails

Richard Owen, in Rome
The three suspects in the case of Meredith Kercher, the British student murdered in Perugia last November, are to be moved to three different high security prisons throughout Italy, according to Italian reports.

At present all three - Amanda Knox, Ms Kercher's American flatmate, Raffaele Sollecito, Ms Knox's former Italian boyfriend, and Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivory Coast immigrant with joint Italian nationality - are being held at Capanne prison just outside Perugia. However Ms Knox is to be transferred to Rebibbia prison in Rome, Mr Sollecito to Terni and Mr Guede to Spoleto.

Prison authorities said the incarceration of the three suspects at Perugia - which is not a high security jail - had only ever been a provisional measure. The move to separate them was not intended to avoid collusion between the three, since they were already being held in isolation from each other and had no contact even though they were in the same jail.

Yesterday Mr Sollecito received his university degree in computer sciences after defending his dissertation before a panel of professors who came to the prison. Mr Sollecito's defence in the murder inquiry is that he was at his flat working on his computer at the time when Ms Kercher was killed at the whitewashed hillside cottage she shared with Ms Knox and two female Italian students. Her throat was cut.

Mr Sollecito's father Francesco brought him a grey pinstripe suit and a tie for his prison encounter with the professors. Mr Sollecito had to return the tie immediately afterwards however, since ties are forbidden in prison. His father said that getting his degree "was very important for Raffaele, a victory". He said his son hoped to take a higher degree at Verona University "when this nightmare is over".

None of the three suspects has been charged, and they can be held for up to a year pending a trial. A fourth suspect, the Congolese pub owner Diya "Patrick" Lumumba, who Ms Knox accused of the murder, was released from jail for lack of evidence but remains "under investigation". Mr Lumumba re-opened his Perugia bar, Le Chic, on Saturday evening, offering free beer to a crowd of well wishing friends. He said however that it was a low key event and that he was not holding a celebratory party "out of respect for Meredith".

Mr Lumumba has said he fired Ms Knox as part-time barmaid at his pub because she spent all her time flirting with male customers. He then offered the job to Ms Kercher, a move which is reported to have further inflamed rivalry between the two women, who according to their Italian flatmates frequently rowed over hygiene and cleaning and Ms Knox's habit of bringing "strange men" back to the house. Ms Knox has denied this however, claiming she and Ms Kercher were good friends.