Italy’s High Court Upholds Slander Conviction Against Amanda Knox
Italy’s high court has upheld the remaining conviction against American Amanda Knox, who was jailed and later acquitted of the 2007 murder of her British roommate Meredith Kercher. Knox was convicted of slandering her former boss Patrick Lumumba by falsely accusing him of Kercher’s murder.
Knox, who was 20 at the time, signed two statements prepared by police regarding her accusation against Lumumba. She later wrote a handwritten note questioning her false accusation. Lumumba was arrested and spent two weeks in jail until police released him due to lack of forensic evidence.
In a lengthy legal saga, Knox and her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were convicted of Kercher’s murder, then acquitted, and finally definitively acquitted in 2015. However, the slander conviction remained.
Knox petitioned the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled in 2023 that her rights were violated during the 2007 interrogation that led to her false accusation against Lumumba. In June 2024, a court in Florence upheld the slander conviction, leading to Thursday’s high court hearing.
Knox attended the June hearing but did not attend Thursday’s high court session. She posted a lengthy thread on social media outlining her side of the story, including how the police “were never held accountable for the crimes they committed against me behind closed doors.”
Lumumba, who attended Thursday’s hearing, told reporters that Knox “never apologized to me.” He expressed satisfaction with the ruling, saying Amanda did wrong and the sentence should accompany her for the rest of her life. Knox does not face any additional jail time.