Amanda Knox Slams Italian Court's Reasoning for Upholding Her Slander Conviction: 'Gaslighting'

Mar. 15, 2025

Amanda Knox during a television appearance on June 10th, 2024.Photo:Massimo Di Vita/Archivio Massimo Di Vita/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty

Massimo Di Vita/Archivio Massimo Di Vita/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty

Amanda Knoxis speaking out after an Italian court released a 35-page document detailing its decision to uphold her previousconviction for slander.

According to theAssociated Press, although Knox later recounted her statements expressing that “they were made under the pressure of stress, shock, and extreme exhaustion,” the Florence appellate court said in new court documents that “the manuscript was written spontaneously and freely, as the accused confirmed in the course of her examination.”

Regarding the latest developments in the case, Knox wrote a lengthythread on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday, Aug 14, alleging that “the Italian justice system has been gaslighting me for 17 years now.”

“It began during my interrogation, and it continues in the courts, most recently in the legal motivation released on August 8th which explains why they found me guilty of slander back in June,” she wrote.

“This gaslighting is upsetting and triggering—hearing a judge offer illogical arguments, present falsehoods as facts, and label me a liar—but it also inspires me to keep fighting, because the police should be held accountable for their abuses of power,“continued Knox.

Amanda Knox on ‘Good Morning America’ in 2018.Paula Lobo/Disney General Entertainment Content/Getty

Paula Lobo/Disney General Entertainment Content/Getty

Speaking about the interrogation and reasoning behind her written statements,Knox continued, “After hours of being psychologically tortured, I was finally left alone, and I began to realize that the statements I’d been pressured to sign were likely not true. I tried to tell the police, but they ignored me. So I asked for a pen and piece of paper.”

Knox was firstconvicted of slandering Lumumba in 2009, before the European Court of Human Rightsruled that the interrogation had violated her rights. She then appealed the slander conviction, and aretrial of the case began in April2024. The appellate courtupheld the initial 2009 ruling two months later.

Amanda Knox at the Criminal Justice Festival at the Law University of Modena, northern Italy on June 15, 2019.VINCENZO PINTO/AFP via Getty

While she and her former boyfriend,Raffaele Sollecito, ended up being falsely convicted of Kercher’s murder and spent four years in an Italian jail, their murder convictionswere reversedafterthree jury trials in 2011.

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source: people.com