Amanda Know was convicted of slander after wrongly accusing a bar owner in the death of her 21-year-old roommate.
Topline
An Italian court has convicted Amanda Knox of slander for her false accusation against her then-boss and local bar owner Patrick Lumumba in the death of Knox’s study abroad roommate, 21-year-old Meredith Kercher, in 2007, a claim she said she made under duress and retracted hours later.Key Facts
Knox, whose legal battles in Italy over the death of Kercher have been ongoing since 2007, was convicted of slander on Wednesday over the accusation against Lumumba, the owner of a bar she worked at part time, which she made during a days-long police interrogation session after the Kercher’s body was found.
Knox told the court Wednesday she was coerced by police into implicating Lumumba (she said an Italian police officer slapped her multiple times while saying ‘Remember, remember”), the BBC reported, and apologized for the harm that came from her false claims.
Lawyers for Knox plan to appeal the verdict, and she will not face prison time as the result of time served, according to BBC (Knox served four years in prison over Kercher’s death before her conviction was overturned).
Knox was 20 years old when Kercher was killed, and Knox and her ex-boyfriend were immediately the prime suspects in the case, a status that earned her a 53-hour interrogation session in the days immediately following the death that she has said included physical abuse by police officers without a lawyer or interpreter present.
After that interrogation, she signed an Italian language confession implicating herself and accusing Lumumba of killing Kercher, the New York Times reported.
