Amanda Knox fingered Perugia bar owner
Patrick Lumumba for Meredith Kercher's murder "of her own accord
and freely", a Florence court said Friday in explaining its
recent rejection of the American's claim that she was physically
coerced into initially identifying her Congolese born friend as
the British exchange student's killer after she was found dead
in their shared flat in the Umbrian capital on November 1,2007.
"Knox's indictment of Lumumba was written spontaneously and
freely as confirmed by the defendant', said the Florentine
judges in their explanation of the verdict, against which Knox
is appealing.
The court upheld a slander sentence against the innocent Lumumba
of three years already served with the almost four years Knox
spent in prison before being eventually acquitted of the murder
with her then Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito.
Knox and Sollecito were arrested five days after Kercher's
semi-naked and brutalised body was found on November 1, 2007 and
convicted by a court of first instance, but this conviction was
subsequently overturned.
The appeal sentence was then thrown out by the Court of
Cassation, Italy's supreme court, which ordered a new trial on
appeal leading to their re-conviction in 2014.
Knox and Sollecito were eventually acquitted definitively by the
supreme court the following year.
Rudy Guede, an Ivorian, was convicted and sentenced to 16 years
for the murder.
He was released from prison in November 2021 after serving 13
years.
In February a court ordered hm to be placed under special
surveillance after he was found guilty of beating his ex
girlfriend.
Knox told Sky News a day after being re-convicted of slandering
Lumumba on June 5 that she loved Italy and hoped that one day
"we will understand each other".
"I love this country and I hope that one day we will be really
able to understand one another. I'm trying," said the
36-year-old
writer and justice reform campaigner.
She said that she and her legal team would be awaiting the
written explanation of the ruling but they would "certainly"
appeal to the supreme Court of Cassation.
"I haven't' slept, I'm really disappointed," she went on, "I
feel
sad but I'm determined.
"I have nothing to hide and I'll never stop telling the truth. I
didn't slander Patrick, I didn't kill my friend (Meredith). I
will return here every time I have to in order to fight this
injustice."
Recalling the allegedly violent questioning session for which
Italy was condemned by the European Court of Human Rights for
violating her defence rights, the sentence which made the
slander appeal trial possible, Knox said it was "the worst
experience of my life".
She said "they made me think I was mad".
But after being "unjustly accused for 17 years", and becoming
"the most hated girl in the world", she said she had "survived"
and would raise her two young children in such a way as to show
them "my strength".
Knox said she was still resentful at tabloid treatment of her as
"Foxy Knoxy" - a soccer nickname - and its delving into
allegedly salacious details of her life.
She also said that, as a campaigner for defendants' rights, she
was aware that there have been some 30,000 victims of
miscarriages of justice in Italy in the last 30 years.
"My message to those who are unjustly incarcerated is: you are
not alone.
"There are very tough days, but there are people who want to
help you," she concluded.
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