A total of 77 national and foreign newspapers and television channels are gearing up to cover the trial of the two remaining suspects in the murder of British student Meredith Kercher that begins on Friday.
Some 140 journalists, photographers and television crew members from Italy, the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany have been accredited to attend the trial of American student Amanda Knox, 21, and her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 24.
Judges on Friday will decide whether to allow television cameras into the courtroom during the trial and will also consider a request from Kercher's family for proceedings to be held behind closed doors.
Kercher was found semi-naked and with her throat slashed on November 2, 2007 in the house she shared with Seattle-born Knox and two other Italian women in Perugia.
In October a third defendant, 21-year-old Ivory Coast national Rudy Guede, was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years for sexually assaulting and murdering the 21-year-old British exchange student.
The prosecution claims Kercher was killed when all three suspects tried to force her to participate in ''a perverse group sex game''.
Prosecutors claim that Knox was responsible for cutting Kercher's throat while Sollecito and Guede held the British student down.
The suspects, who have been awaiting trial for 14 months, deny the charges against them.
''I'm not afraid of the truth and I hope it finally comes out. I was Meredith's friend and I didn't kill her,'' Knox told her lawyers on Wednesday.
