Photographs show alleged murder Amanda Knox embracing her ex-boyfriend and fellow accused Raffaele Sollecito in New York City on Tuesday, mere hours after Italian judges ordered the pair to return for their upcoming retrial for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher.

Knox and Sollecito were standing close together as Knox received a kiss on the cheek, The Daily Mirror reported. Knox's mother stayed behind as they walked down a street. There was no sign of her current boyfriend, musician James Terrano, leading to rumors that Knox and her ex may be romantically involved again.

See photos here.

An onlooker suggested that the pair looked very calm and happy, like a couple who'd been together many years.

"You only have to look at him to see he still holds a huge torch for Amanda. They never once stopped chatting," the onlooker told the Mirror. "It's astonishing they are allowed to even talk to each other, let along see one another, considering they are both suspects in a murder trial."

Knox refused to comment on her meetings with Sallecito while he has only stated that they are in the processing on planning for the upcoming trial.

Sollecito appeared on the TODAY show in May to discuss his book Honor Bound: My Journey to Hell and Back with Amanda Knox. There he defended Knox and his unwavering refusal to implicate her in the crime, saying that "I cannot throw a 20-year-old innocent girl for just giving me the opportunity to live my life, because I wouldn't have ever lived a life like that."

He has also taken to the Internet to solicit donations to help him during the retrial.

"I'm deeply concerned not just for the issue I'm facing and most of you already know about, but also because I don't have resources anymore to fight this injustice," he wrote on Facebook. "I badly need to be able to hire experts, when needed, or pay my attorney fees, documents fees, and so on when the new appeal will start. I hope to not bother you, but I need your collaboration to face this ordeal."

As of the middle of this week, donations for Sallecito total over $4500 from 54 people, with the largest being a single $1000 donation.

A Daily Mail report from Tuesday also stated that Sallecito, who had moved from Italy to Switzerland, had his residence permit revoked by his adopted country; a review found that he had not declared the pending legal matter on his forms.

A local politician, Daniele Caverzasio, also petitioned the town's council to have Sallecito removed from the country.

"Isn't being on trial for murder a good enough reason to revoke residency?" he questioned.

The Italian Court of Cassation ordered in March new trials for Knox and Sallecito after the initial court ruling, which sentenced Knox to 26 years in jail and Sallecito 25, was thrown out in 2011. Now only Ivorian national Rudy Guede has been convicted of the crime; he is serving a 16-year sentence.

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