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It's about time.

Reports arrived this morning that Patrick Lumumba, the 37-year-old Congolese bartender arrested at the beginning the Meredith Kercher murder investigation, has been released from police custody.

This case continues to surprise me. At the beginning I was fairly convinced that Lumumba was somehow involved (largely because I believed Amanda Knox's claims of his lust for Kercher and presence in her room at the time of the murder).

But as developments continue to transpire, I've become more and more skeptical of just how much involvement - if any - this bartender had in the crime.

So far there has been sufficient evidence to suggest at least some level of involvement from each of the other three suspects; yet the suspicion leveled at Mr. Lumumba, it is now reported, was based almost entirely on Knox's story: no DNA, no (credible) witnesses, no motive.

From The Times Online:

The case against [Lumumba] largely rests on the testimony of Ms Knox, who told police she met him at a basketball court near the house on the evening of the murder, that he "desired" Ms Kercher, and that he went into Ms Kercher's bedroom and sexually assaulted and killed her. No trace of his DNA has been found at the cottage.

Congratulations on your reclaimed freedom, Patrick Lumumba (looking particularly relieved in the above post-release photo from The Daily Mail). Let's hope, as more details come out on the true culprits, that your name is not among them.