Suspect in Kercher murder back in Italy

ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Italian police have taken into custody a fourth suspect in the murder of British student Meredith Kercher after he was extradited from Germany Thursday.

Rudy Hermann Guede was greeted by Italian police officials after he arrived at Rome's Fiumicino airport around 1 p.m. local time (7 a.m. ET), an airport spokesman confirmed to CNN.

Guede, 20, who was accompanied on his Lufthansa flight by Interpol officers, was arrested in Germany last month after a bloody palm print was found on a pillow at the crime scene.

Kercher, 20, was found half-naked, with a stab wound to her neck at her villa in Perugia on November 2.

Guede, from Ivory Coast, did not attempt to fight extradition. He is the only suspect to have admitted being at Kercher's villa the night she died.

He admits having sexual relations with Kercher but claims the student was attacked by an unknown assailant when he was in the bathroom, according to his defense lawyers. He claimed he confronted the attacker and fled the scene after he became afraid, the lawyers said.

The suspect is expected to be taken to the same Perugia prison as two other suspects being held in connection with the death -- Kercher's American housemate, Amanda Knox, 20, and Knox's Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 23. Watch what judges wrote about the suspects »

The three deny any involvement in the killing; and another man, Congolese bar owner Patrick Lumumba, has been released from custody due to lack of evidence, although police say he remains a suspect.

In addition to the bloody print, DNA tests have also linked Guede to the villa through skin cells found on toilet paper there, prosecutors say.

A vaginal swab taken from the body of Kercher was matched to DNA from Guede, according to a source in the prosecutor's office in Perugia.

He was arrested by chance after being caught on a train without a ticket by German authorities in the town of Mainz, near Frankfurt, prosecutors said. E-mail to a friend

CNN's Hada Messia in Rome contributed to this report

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