Italy’s highest court on Thursday upheld the slander conviction of American defendant Amanda Knox in a case related to the sensationalized 2007 murder of her British roommate.
Knox was convicted of slandering her former boss, Congolese bar owner Patrick Lumumba, by falsely accusing him of murdering Meredith Kercher.
A 21-year-old exchange student, Kercher was found stabbed to death in 2007 in the Perugia apartment she shared with Knox.
While being interrogated, Knox, who was 20 at the time, signed two statements prepared by police regarding her accusation against Lumumba. Knox later wrote a handwritten note questioning her false accusation.
Last year, an appeals court in Florence handed Knox a three-year sentence for wrongly accusing Lumumba.
Knox, now 37 years old, had already served nearly four years during the investigation, initial murder trial and first appeal. She was convicted twice before Italy’s highest court finally exonerated her of the crime in 2015. She is not at risk of any more jail time.
Knox had appealed the slander conviction based on a European Court of Human Rights ruling that said her rights had been violated by police failure to provide a lawyer and adequate translator during a lengthy night of questioning just days after Kercher was killed.
With the appeal, Knox was aiming to clear her name in Rome’s Court of Cassation in the last remaining legal case against her following a nearly two-decades-long legal saga.
But on Thursday, Judge Monica Boni confirmed the slander conviction.
Knox, who did not attend the court, maintained her innocence in a post on X.
“It’s a surreal day,” Knox said. “I’ve just been found guilty yet again of a crime I didn’t commit.”
Knox’s lawyer, Carlo Dalla Vedova, said he was surprised by the conviction.
“We cannot believe it. A totally unjust decision for Amanda and unexpected in our eyes,” he said. “We are incredulous.”
But Lumumba said he was satisfied with the verdict.
“Amanda was wrong. This verdict has to accompany her for the rest of her life,” he told The Associated Press.
Rudy Guede, originally from the Ivory Coast, was eventually found guilty and sentenced to 16 years in prison for killing Kercher. He was released in 2021 after serving most of his sentence. He denied killing Kercher.
Knox’s lengthy legal saga was fodder for tabloids around the world and spawned books, movies and documentaries.
Knox herself is currently producing a Hulu mini-series about her wrongful conviction and fight to clear her name. Social activist Monica Lewinsky is also producing the series.
Some information in this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press.
This post was originally published on here
