View Rudy Hermann Guede YouTube video

Rudy Hermann Guede, the immigrant drug dealer hunted as the "fourth suspect" in the murder of Meredith Kercher in the Italian city of Perugia has been arrested in Germany.

His fingerprint was found on Ms Kercher's blood-soaked pillow and on toilet paper at the whitewashed cottage where the murder took place, police say. In addition, his DNA was found on the British student's body.

Reports said that Mr Guede had been arrested while on a train between Mainz and Koblenz, and had at first been detained because he was travelling without a ticket. German transport police had then called Interpol.

New witness 'saw Meredith suspects together'

Amanda Knox, Raffaele Sollecito and Rudy Guede were see at the house in Perugia where the American student died

Multimedia

• Murder in Perugia

BACKGROUND

• Meredith Kercher: Q&A

• New DNA not from Meredith suspects

• Timings crucial to Kercher murder investigation

Related Links

• Fourth Meredith suspect is named

• Bleach bills at odds with Meredith evidence

• Arrest warrant for fourth Meredith suspect

Multimedia

• Video: fourth Meredith suspect

Interpol said he had been detained at Mainz pending extradition to Italy. An international arrest warrant for his arrest was issued by prosecutors in Perugia this week, and his picture was published in newspapers and on TV Europe-wide.

Italian television said Mr Guede claimed he had been on his way back to Italy to give himself up when arrested on the train.

While on the run he told a British newspaper which approached him through his Facebook site that he intended to give himself up to clear his name.

The three suspects who have been in prison for two weeks are Amanda Knox, an American student who shared the hillside cottage with Ms Kercher and two Italian female students; Raffaele Sollecito, her Italian boyfriend; and Diya "Patrick" Lumumba, a bar owner and musician from Zaire who came to Perugia as a student and stayed.

Prosecutors are now reported to be considering the release of Mr Lumumba. The case against him largely rests on the testimony of Ms Knox, who told police she met him at a basketball court near the house on the evening of the murder, that he "desired" Ms Kercher, and that he went into Ms Kercher's bedroom and sexually assaulted and killed her. No trace of his DNA has been found at the cottage.

Ms Knox has given several different versions of events, most recently claiming she was not even there at the time of the murder. Police suspect that she was present and took part in the assault on Ms Kercher, but accused Mr Lumumba to cover up for Mr Guede, a drug dealer who was supplying Ms Knox with hashish and is thought to be one of several men with whom she had a relationship.

Mr Lumumba was well known to the Perugia student community because of his bar, Le Chic, which both Ms Kercher and Ms Knox frequented and where Ms Knox helped out twice a week. The only known connection between Mr Lumumba and Mr Guede is that a Bulgarian woman with whom Mr Guede had a relationship also worked for Mr Lumumba at his bar.

Witnesses have testified that Mr Lumumba was at his bar on the evening of the murder. Tiziano Tedeschi, one of the defence lawyers in the case, said Mr Guede was "not the fourth suspect, he is the first suspect". Giuliano Mignini, the chief prosecutor in Perugia, would only say he was "evaluating the situation".

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