Amanda Knox said she would continue to “fight for the truth” and planned to appeal her re-conviction on libel charges linked to the police investigation into the infamous 2007 murder of her roommate.
In an interview with Sky News Italy, Knox said, “I've been wrongly accused for 17 years. I spent four years in prison as an innocent. Seventeen years, that is my entire adult life, I have been wrongly accused. From the beginning I just wanted to do the right thing and tell the truth. Sometimes I feel like I can't do anything. I'm trying, I'll try forever.”
Earlier this week, an appellate court in Florence, Italy, upheld Knox's libel conviction for accusing an innocent man of murdering Meredith Kercher. Knox herself was wrongfully convicted of Kercher's murder and spent four years in prison before being released in 2011.
The libel charge stemmed from comments Knox made after intense police questioning. She said Patrick Lumumba – the owner of a bar where Knox worked while in Italy – had broken into the flat she shared with Kercher, sexually assaulted Kercher and then killed her.
While Knox recanted just hours later, Lumumba was arrested and spent two weeks in custody before his alibi was finally established (he was a bartender at the time). In addition, authorities decided to pursue a libel case against Knox, prevailing with a conviction in 2009 while she was still in prison for murder.
Last year, the European Court of Human Rights said Knox's rights were violated during her interrogation, and Italy's Supreme Court ordered a retrial. During the retrial, Knox admissible to falsely accuse Lumumba, but argued that her comments should not be taken as slanderous because of the circumstances of her interrogation.
She reiterated this in her new interview with Sky, saying she was “psychologically tortured, abused and mistreated” by police during her interrogation. “It was the worst experience of my life,” he said. “They made me think I was crazy.”
Knox went on to call the verdict “unfair,” adding that she was “really disappointed” and “upset” with the decision. However, she was 'determined' to continue fighting the accusation, insisting: 'I did not slander Patrick. I didn't kill my friend [Meredith]. I will come back here as many times as necessary to fight this injustice.”
from our partners at https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/amanda-knox-slander-reconviction-unfair-appeal-1235035540/
