The man convicted for the murder of British exchange student Meredith Kercher is to be released from prison for 36 hours as a reward for his good behaviour.

Rudy Guede, 29, is currently serving a 16-year jail sentence for the 2007 murder of Ms Kercher and has been released following the decision of a probate court in Rome.

Guede is understood to be leaving the Mammagialla prison in Viterbo on Wednesday morning and will return to jail on Friday night, The Local reported.

“I will be able to feel the sun on my skin and look out of the window without bars in front of my eyes,” Guede told La Rebubblica after the ruling.

“Thirty-six hours, each one of them precious. I thank everybody who has had faith in me,” he added.

Guede is the only person to have been convicted of Ms Kercher’s murder and not had the ruling overturned. He admitted to being in the Perugia flat on the night that Ms Kercher died but has consistently claimed to be innocent in the case of the 21-year-old’s sexual assault and murder.

After being jailed for 30 years in 2008, his sentence was reduced to 16-years following an appeal hearing in 2010. He will be eligible for parole in 2018.

Amanda Knox: Joy as murder conviction overturned

Both Amanda Knox and her then boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were convicted and jailed for murder and sexual assault in 2009, freed two years later after the DNA evidence used in their trial was found to be unreliable, then had their guilty verdicts upheld by a court in 2014 before they were both acquitted by the Italian supreme court in March last year.

Speaking about Guede’s temporary release, Ms Knox told La Repubblica: “I’m upset by the fact that Guede has never shown any remorse and hope that whoever granted him permission did so only as part of a social reintegration programme.”