NEW DELHI:
Amanda Knox
, an American, appeared in court on Wednesday for a
slander case
connected to her notorious imprisonment and subsequent acquittal for the 2007 murder of her British roommate,
Meredith Kercher
. During the hearing, Knox tearfully apologised for falsely accusing an innocent man,
Patrick Lumumba
, of the crime, attributing her initial false statement to pressure from
Italian police
.
Knox, who was 20 years old at the time of the murder, described the night of her interrogation as "the worst night of my life," claiming that she was questioned for hours in a language she barely understood, without an official translator or lawyer. She alleged that the police refused to believe her when she said she didn't know who the killer was and that she was yelled at and slapped during the investigation.
"I'm very sorry I was not strong enough to have resisted the police pressure," Knox told the judges.
"I was scared, tricked and mistreated. I gave the testimony in a moment of existential crisis."
The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2019 that Knox had not been provided with adequate legal representation or a professional interpreter during her interrogation, compromising the fairness of the proceedings. This ruling was cited by Italy's top court last year when it ordered a retrial for the slander case.
Lumumba's lawyer, Carlo Pacelli, described how Knox's accusation changed his client's life, turning him into "the monster of Perugia" in the public eye. The verdict in the slander case can be appealed by both parties.
The murder trial attracted significant global attention, with much of it focusing on prosecutors' claims that Kercher died as part of a sex game gone wrong. However, Italy's highest court, when it ultimately acquitted Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, stated that there had been "major flaws" in the police investigation. Ivorian Rudy Guede remains the only person convicted of Kercher's murder, having been sentenced in 2008 and released early in November 2021.
Now 36 years old with two young children, Knox works as a journalist, author, and advocate for criminal justice reform. She returned to Italy five years ago to speak at a conference on wrongful convictions, participating in a panel titled "Trial By Media."
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