An Italian court on Thursday afternoon upheld the conviction of Amanda Knox, who slandered her former boss nearly 20 years ago when he was wrongly accused of killing her foreign student roommate.
Rome's Supreme Court ruled in June 2024 that former Italian student Knox, 37, had wrongly accused bar owner Patrick Lumumba of murdering his 21-year-old British roommate Meredith Kercher in 2007. ) and decided to uphold this sentence. Thursday's appeals court verdict, According to Reuters.
Knox said Italian police forced her to charge Lumumba with Karcher's murder.
“Italy overturned this conviction and sent me back for a retrial last year. They convicted me again and now this is a final effort to clear my name once and for all,” Knox said. I wrote about X before it was sent down. “I'm not a liar. I'm not a detractor. I wasn't home when Meredith was murdered.”
Amanda Knox 'appalled' after Italian Supreme Court finds her guilty in defamation case
Amanda Knox reacts on June 5, 2024, on the day of the verdict in her defamation case in an Italian court in Florence, Italy. (Claudia Greco/Reuters)
Lumumba said he was “very satisfied” with Thursday's verdict, according to Reuters.
Lumumba said: “I am very satisfied. Amanda did something wrong and this sentence will haunt her for the rest of her life. I had a good feeling about this this afternoon. I salute Italian justice.” said.
Amanda Knox re-convicted on defamation charges in Italy over 2007 murder of roommate
Amanda Knox walks on the day of the verdict in her defamation case at an Italian courthouse in Florence, Italy, on June 5, 2024. (Claudia Greco/Reuters)
Ms Knox's lawyer, Luca Luparia Donati, said her legal team was “incredible”.
“It was a totally unfair decision for Amanda and unexpected in our eyes. We are in disbelief, but we will be watching and reading the motives closely,” Donati said, according to Reuters.
What you need to know about the latest trial involving Amanda Knox
Rudy Guede, 36, was convicted of the rape and murder of Ms. Karcher, 21, along with Knox and Knox's boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito in 2009, and the 30-year sentence was later reduced to 16 years. He was released in 2020 after serving 13 years of his term. year. (Federico Zirilli/AFP via Getty/Italian police, File via AP/Paula Lobo/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty)
Knox was 20 years old. Exchange student from Seattle When she found Karcher dead in their shared house in Perugia on November 2, 2007, the case made national headlines, and the accused American students included “Foxy Noxie” and others. He was given various nicknames.
Her ex-boyfriend, Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, and Rudy Guede, an Ivorian who had no connection to Knox or Karcher, were all charged. Karcher murder In 2007.
Amanda Knox says the man who killed roommate Meredith Kercher has harmed 'more young women' since his release
Guede was released in 2021 after his DNA and fingerprints were found at the crime scene. (Franco Orillia)
Knox and Sollecito spent four years in Italian prisons before being acquitted in 2011 and finally acquitted in 2015. Guede was released in 2021 after his DNA and fingerprints were found at the crime scene.
In June, Italy's highest court sentenced Knox to three years in prison for defamation, but he did not have to go back to prison because he had already served time for the crime he did not commit.
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Amanda Knox is escorted by Italian police from a Perugia courtroom after the trial for the murder of Meredith Kercher on September 16, 2008. She was acquitted of murder charges in 2015. (Antonio Calanni/Associated Press)
“I have been fighting this criminal defamation charge since I was first convicted in 2009. This charge was upheld when I was acquitted of murder in 2015, so in 2019 I have appealed to the European Court of Human Rights. Regards,” Knox wrote on Wednesday.
Knox pointed out that during her murder trial, “everything went awry due to interrogations that the Italian courts deemed illegal.''
“Patrick” [Lumumba] He was detained for two weeks and lost his job. Rafael and me [sic] Wrongly convicted and sent to prison. The real culprit, Rudy Guede, received a light sentence. The Kercher family was robbed of certainty and closure, and “the police were never held accountable for the crimes they committed against me behind closed doors,” Knox wrote.
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Amanda Knox attends an appeal hearing at the Court of Appeal of Perugia on September 30, 2011 in Perugia, Italy. (Franco Orillia)
Police had threatened Ms Knox with 30 years in prison if she did not remember who was there on the night of the murder, Ms Knox previously explained in a statement after her first libel verdict last year. I was doing it. Knox said in a statement that one of the officers slapped her on the back of the head and demanded, “'Remember! Remember!'”
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Knox added after Thursday's sentencing that he had “more to say on this matter.”
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She was not in Italy for Thursday's sentencing. current nox live in seattle With my husband and two children.
