Amanda Knox, who was acquitted in the 2007 murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy, had a slander conviction upheld against her by Italy’s high court on Thursday. Knox had appealed the conviction by citing a decision from the European Court of Human Rights in 2023 that said authorities had violated her rights by not providing her with an adequate translator or lawyer. Knox was charged with slander after falsely accusing her boss, Patrick Lumumba, of Kercher’s murder. Lumumba claimed the false accusation destroyed his business. But Knox has defended herself, claiming police pressured her into writing the accusation and that her poor Italian made the situation worse. She withdrew the accusation shortly after writing it. She said the police who arrested her “were never held accountable for the crimes they committed” when she was interrogated after Kercher’s murder. Knox has maintained her innocence and has been in a prolonged legal battle to overturn all convictions related to the murder. She and her ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were acquitted of murder for the final time in 2015. Knox now sits on the advisory council of the Frederick Douglass Project for Justice.
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