AMANDA Knox, the photogenic, blonde, American made-for-TV starlet who murdered Meredith Kercher with two male accomplices, is to stand trial for slander.Knox says Italian police beat her during questioning. The Italian police have been the target of Knox’s supporters, who see the foreigners as the the enemy of justice.
Knox is serving 26 years for sexual assault and murder. Her former lover Raffaele Solecito is in jail for 25 years. Hermann Guede, from the Ivory Coast, is serving 16 years.
At the trial Knox testified on her police interrogation:
“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.”
Says Knox:
“I didn’t mean to offend or slander anybody. I reiterate, I was only trying to defend myself. I was exercising a right.”
It’s all a bit odd, isn’t it? Isn’t lying what guilty people do when they want to protest their innocence. Knox says she was hit by police. Are the Italian police so thin-skinned that take offence at this? Well, yes. They got a result. The killer was charged and convicted. Move on.
Only, this case has legs. Knox is blonde, young and American. She’s newsworthy. Her father, Curt Knox, says the new trail “is going to be her chance once again to have that wrongful conviction overturned”.
No. It isn’t. This is a slander trial. Knox makes the accusation. The onus is on her and her team to prove it or argue for context. Knox has already been convicted of murder. The police did their job in catching her and finding enough evidence to secure a conviction…
