A Florence court on Wednesday reinstated the Amanda Knox slander conviction for naming former bar owner Patrick Lumumba in relation to the 2007 murder of her flat-mate Meredith Kercher in Perugia.
The American writer has already served the three-year-term handed down by the court. Knox returned to Italy to attend the slander conviction retrial.
Knox initially identified Congo-born Lumumba over the 2007 murder in the Umbrian city of the 21-year-old British exchange student. Subsequently, the American and her Italian ex boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were convicted for the crime. They were acquitted after almost four years in jail.
Lumumba had nothing to do with the murder.
Knox filed for sentence to be definitively annulled
Following a European Court of Human Rights ruling that her defence rights were violated during the initial investigation, Knox filed the appeal.
In October, Italy’s supreme Court of Cassation overturned the conviction and ordered a retrial. Lumumba was a civil plaintiff in the trial and his lawyer had asked for calumny conviction to be reinstated.
Knox listened beside her husband Chris Robinson and her lawyers as the ruling was read out.
“I never wanted to slander Patrick,” Knox had told Wednesday’s hearing. “He was my friend, he took care of me and consoled me for the loss of my friend [Kercher].
“I’m sorry that I couldn’t resist the pressure and that he suffered.
“I humbly ask to declare myself innocent,” she concluded.
She described herself at the time as “frightened and deceived” 20-year-old.
