Amanda Knox has revealed that she's "on trial again in Italy" in another development in the murder case that gripped the world.
Knox was the center of a media storm due to her involvement in a high-profile legal case in Italy.
She was born on July 9, 1987, in Seattle, Washington, USA. Knox became known as the "American exchange student" following the murder of Meredith Kercher, a British student, in Perugia, Italy, in 2007.
Knox, who was studying abroad in Italy, and her Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were arrested in November 2007 in connection with the murder of Kercher, Knox's roommate. They were accused of sexually assaulting and killing Kercher in the apartment they shared.
In December 2009, Knox and Sollecito were both found guilty of murder and sexual assault. Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison, while Sollecito received a 25-year sentence. In 2011, their convictions were overturned on appeal, and they were released from prison.
The Italian Supreme Court ordered a new trial in 2013, and in 2014, both Knox and Sollecito were once again acquitted of the charges. Knox had already spent nearly four years in Italian prisons by the time she was definitively acquitted.
The case received extensive media attention worldwide, with Knox's image often portrayed in different lights. Many in the media characterized her as a victim of a flawed justice system, while others portrayed her as a suspect who might have been involved in the crime.
Knox is heading back to Italian courts, but this time she is greeting this legal development with an air of optimism, as she seeks to secure a full acquittal on related charges.
As reported by The Guardian, Knox remained burdened with a conviction for slander arising from a wrongful accusation she made against Perugia bar owner Patrick Lumumba during the murder investigation.
Knox's ordeal began when she wrongfully accused Lumumba of involvement in the crime, a charge that was dropped two weeks later when another individual provided an alibi for Lumumba. Her lawyers argued that she made the false accusation under duress during her initial questioning, without the presence of an interpreter or legal counsel.
On Friday, Knox took to Instagram to explain her perspective, stating: "Though I was exonerated for murder, I remained wrongly convicted of slander."
Knox further clarified that the Court of Cassation, Italy's highest court of appeal, had sentenced her to serve time for the slander charge, and she had spent three out of the four years of imprisonment for that offense.
However, her stance received a significant boost when the European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2019 that her "rights to a lawyer and interpreter were violated" during her interrogation.
Thanks to a recent reform, the Court of Cassation also acknowledged the European Court of Human Rights ruling. Knox emphasized the significance of this development, pointing out that her false accusation had caused considerable suffering, with Lumumba enduring ten days of wrongful imprisonment and both herself and Sollecito spending nearly four years in prison.
"I am no longer a convicted person," Knox declared. "And I will fight with my lawyers to prove my innocence once and for all."
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