A Florence court on Wednesday
reinstated Amanda Knox's calumny conviction for fingering 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 three-year-term handed
down by the court.
Knox initially identified Congo-born Lumumba over the November
1, 2007 murder in the Umbrian city of the 21-year-old British
exchange student, a crime for which the American was first
convicted with her Italian ex boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, and
finally acquitted after almost four years in jail.
Lumumba had nothing to do with the murder.
Knox filed the appeal to definitively annul the calumny sentence
on the basis of a European Court of Human Rights ruling that her
defence rights were violated during the initial investigation.
In October Italy's supreme Court of Cassation overturned the
conviction and ordered a retrial.
Knox listened beside her husband Chris Robinson and her lawyers
as the ruling was read out.
"I never wanted to calumny 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 - ed.).
"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.
Lumumba was a civil plaintiff in the trial and his lawyer had
asked for calumny conviction to be reinstated.
Knox and Sollecito were arrested five days after the murder 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.
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