Amanda Knox, an American author, activist, and journalist, is reconvicted for slander by a court in Florence years after she was convicted of murdering her British roommate Meredith Kercher in 2007.
However, Knox will not go to prison as she has already served four years. The author was also convicted of putting the blame for the murder on local bar owner Patrick Lumumba. But that conviction was quashed last year, and a retrial was ordered.
Knox’s lawyers said she was disappointed as she hoped to clear her name from the conviction. On Wednesday, the author claimed that the police had coerced her into implicating Mr Lumumba.
She said the police threatened her with 30 years in prison; an officer even slapped her three times. She apologized for not being strong enough to withstand the pressure from the police. Knox never wanted to slander Patrick as he was her close friend, who took care of her and consoled her for the loss of Meredith.
Mr Lumumba spent two weeks behind bars in connection with a 2007 murder but was released without any charges. However, the conviction affected his reputation, and he was called the monster of Perugia.
His lawyers said he lost his job, his bar was seized for months, and he had to return to Poland. On 1 November 2007, Meredith was found dead in her house with a cut on her throat. She was also sexually assaulted.
The case became a subject of global media interest as Meredith was a victim of a drug-fuelled sex game. In December 2009, Knox, her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, and a third person, Rudy Guede, were convicted of murder and sexual violence.
But the same year, Knox and Sollecito were freed after doubts emerged over forensic evidence used against them.
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