Amanda Knox says she is a victim after a court upheld a ruling that she slandered a man over the murder of British student Meredith Kercher.
The American, 36, who spent almost four years in jail before being cleared of her flatmate’s murder, now claims she has been unjustly persecuted her whole adult life.
Knox falsely accused bar owner Patrick Lumumba of taking part in the 2007 killing in Perugia, Italy. On Wednesday, she wept when a Florence appeal court ruled that her slander conviction and its three-year jail term would be upheld.
Although Knox faces no more jail time because of the years she was wrongly imprisoned, she wants to appeal the decision and clear her name.
Meredith Kercher was a British student on exchange from the University of Leeds who was murdered in 2007 (PA)She said: “I have been unjustly accused for 17 years. I spent four years in prison as an innocent. Seventeen years – that’s my entire adult life that I have been unjustly accused.” Knox, from Seattle, went on: “I haven’t slept.
Amanda Knox in quip at US student who hated 'every aspect' of Florence semester
“I feel sad but I’m determined. I have nothing to hide and will never stop telling the truth. I didn’t slander Patrick [Lumumba]. I didn’t kill my friend. I will come back here as many times as I have to in order to fight against this injustice.”
Knox said she was surprised by the verdict and had thought it was a “very clear matter”, arguing that one of the main documents in the case clearly said she did not know who killed Meredith.
She went on: “From the beginning, I just wanted to do the right thing and tell the truth. Sometimes I feel like there’s nothing I can do. I’m trying, I will for ever.”
The murder of Meredith, from Coulsdon, South London, in the idyllic hilltop town of Perugia made international headlines.
Suspicion fell on Knox, then a 20-year-old exchange student, and her new boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito. Meredith, a 21-year-old Leeds University exchange student, was found half-naked and bloodied inside the roommates’ cottage. Her throat was slit and she had multiple stab wounds.
Knox and Sollecito were convicted of murder, then acquitted, convicted again finally cleared of all charges in 2015. But Knox’s slander conviction remained, and still remains, outstanding.
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