MILAN, June 4, (AP): Amanda Knox will be back in an Italian courtroom this week to defend herself against a 16-year-old slander conviction that she hopes to beat once and for all.
Her chance was made possible when a European court ruled that Italy violated her human rights during a long night of questioning after the murder of her British roommate in November 2007.
The slander conviction for accusing a Congolese bar owner in the murder is the only charge against Knox that withstood five court rulings that ultimately cleared her in the brutal murder of her roommate, 21-year-old Meredith Kercher, in the apartment they shared in the idyllic central Italian university town of Perugia.
A verdict in the slander case retrial ordered by Italy's highest court is expected on Wednesday, with Knox appearing in an Italian court for the first time in more than 12 1/2 years.
The slander charge was largely based on two statements typed by police that Knox signed during the early hours of Nov 6, 2007, under extended questioning in Italian from police without a lawyer or a competent translator. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that the conditions violated her human rights.
Kercher's brutal murder grabbed worldwide attention as suspicion fell on Knox, then 20, and her then-Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, with whom she had been involved for just about a week.