Raffaele Sollecito, left, and his father Francesco leave a hearing in Florence, Italy, on Jan. 30. He and American student Amanda Knox are accused of killing British student Meredith Kercher in 2007.

FLORENCE, Italy — Few international criminal cases have stirred national passions as strongly as that of American student Amanda Knox, waiting half a world away for her third Italian court verdict in the 2007 slaying of her British roommate, 21-year-old Meredith Kercher.

Whatever is decided this week, the protracted legal battle that has grabbed global headlines and polarized trial-watchers in three nations probably won’t end in Florence.

The first two trials produced flip-flop verdicts of guilty then innocent for Knox and her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, and the case has produced harshly clashing versions of events. A Florence appeals panel designated by Italy’s supreme court to address issues it raised about the acquittal is set to deliberate today, with a verdict expected later in the day.

Much of the attention has focused on Knox, 26, who has remained in Seattle during this trial, citing her fear of “the universal problem of wrongful conviction,” according to her statement e-mailed to the Florence court. Her representatives say she is concentrating on her studies at the University of Washington.

“We wait for the verdict, and remain hopeful,” Knox’s U.S. lawyer, Theodore Simon, said by telephone from Philadelphia. “But history being our guide, we know Amanda can be convicted and it is very disconcerting to her and her family. The logical position is that there is no evidence.”

Knox was arrested four days after Kercher’s half-naked body was discovered Nov. 2, 2007 in the Briton’s bedroom in the university town of Perugia. Knox has been portrayed both as a she-devil bent on sexual adventure and as a naif caught up in Italy’s Byzantine justice system.

U.S. commentators have accused the Italian judicial system of a case of misapplied justice and double jeopardy, while Italians and British observers have jumped on the image encoded in the U.S. defendant’s pretrial moniker, “foxy Knoxy.”

“I don’t remember any case which has been as highly publicized and where the countries have taken sides,” noted defense attorney Alan Dershowitz, who has written about the case.

“I think it’s fair to say that the vast number of Americans think she is innocent and a substantial number of Italians think she is guilty,” he said.

Prosecutor Alessandro Crini has demanded sentences of 26 years on the murder charge for Knox and Sollecito.