Guilty: 'Embittered' Amanda Knox Re-convicted of Slander in Italy for Accusing Innocent Man of Roommate Meredith Kercher's 2007 Murder
Amanda Knox was re-convicted of slander in Italy this week.
American citizen Amanda Knox was re-convicted of slander in Italy this week after she accused an innocent man of killing her roommate, Meredith Kercher, back in 2007, RadarOnline.com can report.
In a sudden development to come after Knox, 36, was wrongfully convicted of Kercher’s murder in 2009, she returned to Italy this week to face a slander charge against a man named Patrick Lumumba.
Knox, 36, was wrongfully convicted of Kercher’s murder in 2009.
Knox was initially charged with slander against Lumumba back in 2009. An appellate court in Florence ultimately upheld that conviction on Wednesday.
“I am very sorry that I was not strong enough to resist the pressure of police,’’ Knox told the six-jury panel in a prepared statement this week.
“I didn’t know who the murderer was,” she admitted. “I had no way to know.”
Although Knox faced a potential three-year prison sentence for the slander charge, she was not sentenced due to the time she already served during her nearly four years in detention for the wrongful conviction of Kercher’s murder.
Knox was initially charged with slander against Patrick Lumumba back in 2009.
“Amanda is very embittered,” Knox’s lawyer, Carlo della Vedova, said after Knox’s slander conviction was upheld on Wednesday.
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Knox first made international headlines back in November 2007 when her roommate, Meredith Kercher, was murdered inside the Perugia, Italy apartment that the pair shared during their time in the country as exchange students.
Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were later arrested and charged for Kercher’s murder. Lumumba was also arrested, as was a man named Rudy Guede after his bloody fingerprints were found on some of Kercher's possessions.
Both Knox and Sollecito were ultimately convicted of Kercher’s murder in December 2009. Flash forward to October 2011, and the pair’s convictions were overturned after evidence from the Perugia crime scene was called into question.
- Amanda Knox Teams Up With Monica Lewinsky for Hulu Series About Meredith Kercher's Murder 8 Years After Acquittal
- 'Lost Forever': Amanda Knox's Ex Says He Is Still Haunted By The Murder Of Meredith Kercher As He Reflects On 4-Year Prison Sentence
- Amanda Knox's Husband Unloads On Meredith Kercher's 'Cruel' Murderer Rudy Guede After His Early Release From Prison
“Amanda is very embittered,” Knox’s lawyer, Carlo della Vedova, said.
Although Knox and Sollecito were re-convicted of Kercher’s murder in January 2014, Italy’s highest court definitively exonerated the former couple of the murder in March 2015.
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The slander charge against Knox stemmed from a statement she provided to police during the immediate aftermath of Kutcher’s murder in November 2007.
Knox told the authorities that she heard her roommate scream and pointed at Lumumba – her boss at an Italian bar at the time – as the killer. Knox later clarified her alleged “confession.”
“I didn’t know who the murderer was,” Knox admitted this week. “I had no way to know.”
“In regards to this ‘confession’ that I made last night, I want to make clear that I’m very doubtful of the verity of my statements because they were made under the pressure of stress, shock and extreme exhaustion,” Knox wrote in a statement penned while she was still in custody following Kutcher’s murder.
Knox’s return to Italy for her slander conviction this week marked just the second time she returned to the country since she was freed in 2011.
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