Judges of the First Section of the Italian Court of Cassation confirmed last Thursday (23) the conviction of American Amanda Knox, symbol of one of the most publicized legal cases in Italy in recent decades, for slander.
Knox wrongly accused of murder an innocent man, Patrick Lumumba, a Congolese former owner of the bar where she worked part-time at the time of the death of her British roommate Meredith Kercher in 2007 in Perugia.
Despite the conviction, Knox will not serve any more prison time, as the three-year sentence counts as time already served.
“This is a sentence that is completely unexpected for us and unfair to Amanda. We are in disbelief. We will read the reasons,” Knox’s defense attorney, Luca Luparia Donati, said after the verdict.
The man wrongly accused of killing Kercher, who was jailed for two weeks in 2007, claims that Knox never apologized and insists that she made a mistake. “I am very satisfied because Amanda made a mistake and this sentence should accompany her for the rest of her life. I felt that and I salute the Italian justice with great honor,” celebrated Lumumba.
At the time of the crime that shocked Italy, the American woman was arrested and convicted of Kercher's murder, a crime that occurred on November 1, 2007, but was acquitted by the country's Supreme Court in 2015.
Italian Raffaele Sollecito, Knox's boyfriend at the time of the murder, was also sentenced and later acquitted of the crime. To date, the only person definitively convicted is Ivorian Rudy Guede, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison and has already served his sentence.
Knox initially identified Congolese-born Lumumba for the murder of the 21-year-old British exchange student, although he had no connection to the crime. (HANDLE)
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