Convicted killer Amanda Knox will
face a further trial after she claimed she was mistreated by the Italian
police.
The 23-year-old American student
appeared in court in Perugia to hear that prosecutors will pursue slander charges
against her.
During the course of her
questioning at the original murder trial, Knox said police had called her a
“stupid liar”.
She also insisted she had been hit
around the head by a female police officer during her time in custody in 2007.
“I’m sorry but it’s true”, Knox had said.
In 2009, the American was jailed
for 26 years for killing her roommate British student Meredith Kercher.
The police officers and
interpreters who gave evidence in the trial all testified Knox was not put under
pressure or mistreated.
At a new hearing to decide if there
was enough evidence for the slander case to proceed, Knox, addressed the court
saying: ”I didn’t mean to offend or slander anybody. I reiterate, I was only
trying to defend myself. I was exercising a right.”
Her lawyer Carlo Dalla Vedova had
argued the case should be thrown out.
But Judge Claudia Matteini decided
she had enough evidence to order a trial for slandering a total of seven
officers.
During the murder trial, Knox
recalled her police questioning and said: ”One shouted, ‘You don’t remember?’
then a policewoman behind me hit me across the back of the head.
“I turned towards her and she
did it again. They were only decent with me when I made my statement. They
wanted a name, but I couldn’t give them one.”
Under Italian law, slander is
punishable with a fine and or a prison sentence of between two and six years.
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