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5 months ago
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ARTICLE AD BOX
AMANDA Knox has revealed she will be back in court this week for a slander case linked to the murder of her British roommate Meredith Kercher.
Knox was 20 years old when she and her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were convicted of stabbing 21-year-old Kercher to death at their shared flat in Perugia, Italy, in 2007.
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PA:Press Association
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AFPAfter spending four years in an Italian prison for the murder before being freed on appeal Knox was finally exonerated in 2015.
But there is one conviction against Knox that still stands as the now mum-of-two was found guilty of slander for falsely accusing Patrick Lumumba, a Congolese bar owner, of killing Kercher.
Italy’s highest court quashed the slander conviction last October and ordered a new trial in Florence – with the next hearing and potentially the verdict due on Wednesday.
Knox posted on X: “On June 5th, I will walk into the very same courtroom where I was reconvicted of a crime I didn’t commit, this time to defend myself yet again.
“I hope to clear my name once and for all of the false charges against me. Wish me luck!”
Knox was subjected to more than 53 hours of interrogation – without a lawyer or official translator – and during that process, she accused Lumumba of killing Kercher.
Her claims prompted a separate charge in Italy of slandering police, of which she was cleared in 2016.
In 2016 European Court of Human Rights declared that Knox’s rights were violated during the interrogation and, at the request of her lawyers, the highest court in Italy annulled the slander conviction and ordered a retrial.
It said her treatment “compromised the fairness of the proceedings as a whole”.
Last October’s court decision cited the European ruling when it ordered a retrial.
MEREDITH KERCHER
Meredith Kercher was born in Southwark, South London on 28 December, 1985.
The 21-year-old’ body was found in a pool of blood in her bedroom on November 2, 2007.
An autopsy conducted on her body found that her throat had been cut and she had been stabbed almost 50 times.
It also found that she had 16 bruises, including on her nose and mouth, as well as suffering injuries related to sexual assault.
In 2007, fingerprints were identified at the scene as belonging to Rudy Guede, who was ultimately charged and sentenced for the brutal murder.
He was released early in November 2021.
The case attracted global media interest, with Knox at the centre.
Amanda Knox Case Timeline
The murder of Meredith Kercher led to two people being wrongfully convicted, giving the case international publicity.
- September 2007 – Meredith Kercher and Amanda Knox move into a villa at 7 via della Pergola in Perugia within weeks of each other
- October 2007 – Knox meets Raffaele Sollecito at concert and the two being dating
- November 1, 2007 – Meredith Kercher is murdered in her bedroom. Her body is found the next day.
- November 6, 2007 – Knox signs a statement implicating Patrick Lumumba of the murder. She, Lumumba, and Sollecito are all arrested but Lumumba is released two weeks later
- November 19, 2007 – Rudy Guede is named a suspect in Kercher’s murder
- November 22, 2007 – Knox retracts her confession after it is published in the media
- December 2007 – Guede is extradited to Italy after being found in Germany. He says he had sexual relations with Kercher but another man killed her
- July 2008 – Knox, Guede, and Sollecito are charged with murder
- October 2008 – Guede is found guilty of murder and is sentenced to 30 years (His sentence is reduced to 16 years in 2009)
- December 2009 – Knox and Sollecito are found guilty; Knox receives 26 years; Sollecito gets 25 years
- November 24, 2010 – Knox and Sollecito appeal their convicitons
- March 27, 2015 – Italy’s Supreme Court overturns Knox and Sollecito’s murder convictions
AP
Knox has devoted her life to helping those wrongfully convicted
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