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Raffaele Sollecito is in the fight of his life.
In an interview on Today, Amanda Knox's ex-boyfriend says the pair's retrial that kicked off Monday in Florence, Italy has left him in a horrible state of legal hell from which he's afraid there's no return.
"It seems to be a pretty never-ending saga of a nightmare," Sollecito, 29, told co-anchor Savannah Guthrie. "My life is still on hold and I cannot move on. I cannot make plans for my future. I don't see him any real future for me instead of standing in the trial, kind of forever."
The Italian native and the Seattle exchange student both were accused in the 2007 gruesome stabbing death of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher, in Perugia, Italy. After being found guilty, Sollecito and Knox spent four years in an Italian prison before a lower court overturned their murder conviction and acquitted them on appeal in October 2011.
However, the Italian Supreme Court subsequently ordered the duo to be retried. As an American citizen, the 26-year-old Knox is not required to attend the retrial and has already indicated she doesn't plan to. As an Italian citizen, Sollecito said he would return to his home country to face the latest legal proceedings and would even testify if called upon to do so—though he admitted the ongoing ordeal has "destroyed" his life.
Added Sollecito: "I still live in a nightmare. They put me in jail again. Even if I'm outside, they still hold me in jail because I cannot think of anything else but this trial." Raffaele noted that he understood why Amanda did not want to return to Italy, calling it "her decision."
And when asked by Guthrie whether he regretted meeting Knox, he said he did not, even though he only had known her for a week before Kercher's death.
"I never regret it, because it's not her fault," Sollecito said. "What is happening is a big, huge mistake against two human beings. We are innocent and we are fighting for our innocence. It's not our fault to be in this situation. Actually, I don't regret to have met her because she has nothing to do with all this tragedy and me neither."
Whether an Italian court agrees, he'll have to wait and see.
(E! and Today and part of the NBCUniversal family.)