Amanda Knox, the American who was convicted and later exonerated of murdering her housemate while they were studying in Italy, is expected to appear again in an Italian court on Wednesday, this time to defend herself against defamation charges related to the 2007 murder. .
It is the latest twist in a dramatic legal journey whose echoes continue to resonate almost 17 years after the murder of her housemate, Meredith Kercher, a British student, sparked headlines around the world and made Ms Knox a fixture. tabloid staple.
Ms Knox is being retried on charges of defaming the owner of a bar where she worked by accusing him of killing Ms Kercher, who was stabbed. She was found guilty of the defamation charge in 2009 and was confirmed by several Italian courts.
But a ruling by a European court and a change in Italian law allowed a new appeal by Knox, and Italy’s highest court in October ordered a new trial, which began in April at an appeals court in Florence. A verdict is expected Wednesday.
For Knox, an acquittal would mark the end of a long experience. Writing on social media platform
Ms Knox became a household name in 2007 when the 20-year-old American was arrested along with Raffaele Sollecito, 23, her boyfriend, for the murder of her 21-year-old housemate, Ms Kercher, during what prosecutors described as a sex game gone wrong. The three were studying in the picturesque city of Perugia, in central Italy.
Knox was convicted of the murder in 2009 by an Italian court, but was acquitted on appeal. She returned to the United States in 2011 as her case bounced between several courts until she and Sollecito were exonerated by Italy’s highest court in 2015.
The defamation conviction against bar owner Diya Lumumba, also known as Patrick, was upheld throughout his various trials.
Since returning to the United States, Knox, now 36 and a mother of two young children, has become an advocate for people imprisoned for crimes they did not commit and an advocate for criminal justice reform.
Rudy Guede, a Perugia resident with a police record of robberies, was tried separately and convicted in the murder case. He served 13 years of a 16-year sentence and was released in 2021, and recently made headlines after an ex-girlfriend accused him of physically abusing her. His attorney said this week that the case involving the ex-girlfriend was still under investigation.
Lumumba, who at the time ran Le Chic, a bar where Knox worked part-time, became collateral damage in the case after Knox identified him as Kercher’s killer during an all-night interrogation a few days after the murder. murder. murder.
Ms. Knox recanted within hours of signing two statements accusing him, and those statements were later ruled inadmissible in court. But Lumumba was arrested, jailed for two weeks and released only after one of his clients provided an irrefutable alibi.
Mr Lumumba sued for defamation and Ms Knox was found guilty and sentenced to three years, which she served during her four years in prison.
In a December 2023 episode of “Labyrinths,” the podcast she hosts with her husband, Christopher Robinson, Knox said the defamation conviction still bothered her.
For some, she said, it was “proof that I am a liar and a nasty person and that I have something to hide and I have never told the whole truth about what happened to Meredith and only to someone who was involved in the crime.” would never make statements that would implicate themselves or others.”
Knox, who had arrived in Perugia just two months before the murder, has maintained that she was forced to accuse Lumumba during an all-night interrogation in which she had no legal representation. During questioning, Ms Knox said the police slapped her on the back of the head.
There are no recordings of the interrogations that night, and Italian police officers had sued Ms. Knox for defamation over her description of the interrogation. She was tried and acquitted in 2016.
In 2019, Europe’s highest human rights court ruled that Ms. Knox had been deprived of adequate legal assistance while being interrogated, violating her right to a fair trial, and ordered Italy to pay her 18,400 euros, or about $21,000 in at that time, as damages. , costs and expenses. The court also raised questions about the role of Ms Knox’s interpreter and said Ms Knox’s statements during questioning “had been taken in an atmosphere of intense psychological pressure”.
At the April hearing related to the defamation case, the Italian prosecutor and Carlo Pacelli, Lumumba’s lawyer, argued that Knox had knowingly accused the bar owner of diverting attention from herself and derailing the investigation.
Jurors at Wednesday’s hearing will be asked to consider the four-page statement she wrote to retract the two signed statements she made accusing Mr. Lumumba, “as well as the context and evidence on record,” he said. Pacelli in a telephone conversation. interview. Although she knew her client was innocent, Ms. Knox never conveyed that fact to investigators, she said.
In the handwritten statement, he writes of his confusion: “I want to make it clear that I have many doubts about the veracity of my statements because they were made under the pressure of stress, shock and extreme exhaustion.”
Ms Knox had been ordered to pay damages to Mr Lumumba, but Mr Pacelli said she had never given her client any money. Because of the accusation, Mr. Lumumba lost his business and left Italy with his family. He now lives in Krakow, Poland, and did not respond to requests for comment.
“This is a trial that from time to time offers very surprising twists and turns,” Pacelli said.