UPDATED: Amanda Knox fails to overturn slander conviction in Italy
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Amanda Knox has lost her bid to overturn a slander conviction in Italy.
The American woman was eventually cleared of the brutal 2007 murder of her flatmate, 21-year-old Meredith Kercher, in the apartment they shared in the Italian university town of Perugia.
But she was only released, in 2011, after four years in prison in Italy.
The slander conviction for accusing a Congolese bar owner of the murder during an interrogation was the only charge against Ms Knox that withstood five court rulings that ultimately exonerated her.
“I hope to clear my name once and for all of the false charges against me,” Knox said this week on X.
She had argued in court in Florence this week that her slander conviction should be overturned because of her treatment by police.
Italy’s top court in 2015 annulled Knox’s conviction for the murder of her British flatmate Meredith Kercher in the city of Perugia, capping nearly a decade of courtroom drama during which she had twice been found guilty.
The brutal stabbing of 21-year-old Kercher and multiple trials provided fodder for tabloids on both sides of the Atlantic and inspired books and films.
Knox – who spent four years in jail in Italy and was tried and eventually cleared along with her Italian former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito – is facing a retrial over a slander conviction.
Knox was given a three-year sentence for wrongly accusing Congolese bar owner Patrick Lumumba of killing Kercher. The sentence had no practical impact as it was covered by the time Knox spent in jail.
Lumumba was held for two weeks in 2007 before he was freed. Knox said she named him while under duress when she was being questioned by police.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2019 that there had been procedural errors during Knox’s questioning and Italy’s highest court last year ordered a retrial in the slander case.
Rudy Guede, originally from the Ivory Coast, was sentenced to 16 years in jail for the killing of Kercher, in a ruling that said he acted with unnamed other culprits. He was granted early release in 2021.
