By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-01-23 21:16:24 | Updated at 2025-01-24 00:22:29
3 hours ago
Italy’s highest court on Thursday upheld the conviction of American Amanda Knox for slander in a case related to the murder of her British flatmate in 2007, the final act in a legal drama lasting almost two decades.
An appeal court in Florence had 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, 37, served four years in jail for the killing of Kercher before the conviction was annulled in 2015. She was aiming to clear her name in Rome’s Court of Cassation in the last legal case against her over the affair.
The sentence has no practical impact as it was covered by the time Knox spent in prison.
Lumumba welcomed the verdict.
“I am very satisfied. Amanda did wrong, this sentence must accompany her for the rest of her life. I had a good feeling about this since the afternoon. I hail Italian justice with great honour,” Lumumba said.
