FLORENCE and LONDON — An Italian court on Wednesday re-convicted Amanda Knox of slander, upholding the only conviction still standing in association with the brutal murder of her roommate in 2007.
The Florence court sentenced Knox to three years for slandering Patrick Lumumba, a Congolese bar owner, in a written statement following the murder of Meredith Kercher. Knox is not expected to serve the time, since she served about four years before her murder conviction was overturned.
Amanda Knox reacts on the day of the verdict in the slander case at Italy Court in Florence, Italy June 5, 2024.
Claudia Greco/Reuters
The European Court of Human Rights had ruled in 2019 that Italian law enforcement violated Knox’s rights during questioning, which led to Italy throwing out her slander conviction. The country’s supreme court then asked the Florence court to begin a new trial to decide whether there had been slander in the note.
Knox arrived in court in Florence Wednesday morning, with her hearing set to begin at 9:30 a.m. local time. She was accompanied by her husband, Christopher Robinson, with whom she shares two children.
Knox made an about 10-minute declaration before the court. Speaking in Italian with a voice that at times trembled, she spoke of why she wrote the note naming Lumumba.
She said she didn’t intend to hurt him, who was “not only her employer,” but also a friend who consoled her after her roommate’s death. She named him while she was exhausted and confused during an extensive police interrogation, she said.
The hearing had been scheduled for the “very same courtroom where I was reconvicted of a crime I didn’t commit,” Knox said on Monday. This time, she would be here to “defend myself yet again,” she added.
Amanda Knox arrives with her husband Christopher Robinson at the courthouse in Florence, on June 5, 2024 before a hearing in a slander case, related to her jailing and later acquittal for the murder of her British roommate in 2007.
Tiziana Fabi/AFP via Getty Images
“I hope to clear my name once and for all of the false charges against me,” Knox said on social media. “Wish me luck.”
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Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were initially convicted of murder in 2009, a ruling that was overturned in 2011.
After her initial conviction was overturned, courts in Italy again convicted Knox of murder in 2014. The country’s highest court definitively acquitted her and Sollecito of murder in 2015.
Rudy Hermann Guede was convicted and served 13 years for the murder. He was released in 2021.
On social media on Monday, Knox had added a short postscript to her statement, saying, “Crepi il lupo!” The Italian idiom roughly translates to “May the wolf die,” a common way of saying “Good luck.”
Amanda Knox, the American woman who was acquitted of murder charges in Italy in 2015, has once again found herself in legal trouble in the country. This time, she has been found guilty of slander in an Italian court for the second time.
The case stems from Knox’s original trial in 2009, where she was accused of murdering her British roommate Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy. Knox spent four years in an Italian prison before being acquitted by the Supreme Court of Cassation in 2015. However, during her trial, Knox accused the Italian police of misconduct and abuse, which led to her being charged with slander.
In the recent ruling, the court found Knox guilty of slander for falsely accusing the police of mistreatment. She was sentenced to three years in prison, but it is unlikely that she will serve any time as she is currently living in the United States.
This is not the first time Knox has been found guilty of slander in Italy. In 2014, she was also convicted of slandering a bar owner who claimed she was at his establishment on the night of Kercher’s murder. Knox was sentenced to pay damages to the bar owner, but the ruling was later overturned on appeal.
The latest ruling has once again brought Knox’s legal troubles back into the spotlight. While she may not face any immediate consequences for the slander conviction, it serves as a reminder of the tumultuous legal battle she faced in Italy over a decade ago.
Knox has maintained her innocence throughout the ordeal and continues to speak out about her experiences in Italy. It remains to be seen if she will appeal the latest ruling or if this will be the end of her legal battles in the country.
