Italy's highest court to rule on Amanda Knox slander conviction

ROME — Italy's highest court will decide on Thursday (Jan 23) whether to uphold the conviction of Amanda Knox for slander in a case related to the murder of her British flatmate in 2007.

An appeals court in Florence last year handed Knox a three-year sentence for wrongly accusing Congolese bar owner Patrick Lumumba of killing Meredith Kercher in the city of Perugia.

Knox, who spent four years in jail for the killing of Kercher before the conviction was annulled in 2015, is aiming to clear her name in the last legal case against her over the affair.

Lawyers for Knox, 37, said she would not attend the session in Rome on Thursday, having stayed in the United States with her family.

"I don't believe in superstitions, so I won't ask you to cross your fingers for me. But I won't lie: when total strangers out there say their rooting for me, it really does bolster my spirits," she said in an overnight post on X.

Lumumba, who was held for two weeks in 2007 before he was freed, told reporters outside the court that he hoped the conviction would be upheld.

"I believe in Italian justice. I believe Amanda did wrong and slandered me....she never apologised to me," he said.

The sentence had no practical impact as it was covered by the time Knox spent in prison.

The stabbing of 21-year-old Kercher and multiple trials provided fodder for tabloids on both sides of the Atlantic and inspired books and films.

Rudy Guede, originally from the Ivory Coast, was sentenced to 16 years in jail for the killing of Kercher, in a ruling that said he acted with unnamed other culprits. He was granted early release in 2021.

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