Italy’s highest court upheld the defamation conviction of Amanda Knox by Reuters
Written by Paolo Chiriatti
ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s highest court on Thursday upheld the conviction of American Amanda Knox for slander in a case related to the 2007 killing of her British roommate, the latest action in a legal drama that has dragged on for nearly two decades.
An appeals court in Florence last year gave Knox a three-year sentence for accusing Congolese bar owner Patrick Lumumba of killing Meredith (NYSE: ) Kercher in the town of Perugia.
Knox, 37, served four years in prison for killing Kercher before being convicted in 2015. He intended to clear his name at the Court of Cassation in Rome in the final case against him.
The sentence has no practical effect since it was compounded by the time Knox spent in prison.
Lumumba accepted this decision.
“I am very satisfied. Amanda made a mistake, this sentence must go with her for the rest of her life. I have had a good feeling about this since the afternoon. I commend Italian justice with great respect,” said Lumumba.
Knox, who lives in the United States, did not attend court. His lawyers expressed their surprise at the outcome.
“We don’t believe it. It’s a wrong decision by Amanda and we didn’t expect it. We don’t believe it, we are aware of it and we will study the reasons,” said Knox’s lawyer Luca Lupària Donati.
Knox had protested his innocence in a series of X-documents before Thursday’s hearing.
“It’s not easy, even though I’ve been through this many times,” he wrote.
“I’m not a liar. I’m not a slanderer.”
The 21-year-old Kercher’s stabbing and multiple experiments provided fodder for tabloids on both sides of the Atlantic and inspired books and films.
Rudy Guede, who is originally from the Ivory Coast, was sentenced to 16 years in prison for the murder of Kercher, in a verdict that he said he did with other undisclosed criminals. He was granted early release in 2021.
