A judge in Florence, Italy, ruled Thursday that Amanda Knox, the Seattle woman who last year was acquitted of murdering her housemate Meredith Kercher, did not commit slander against police officers who questioned and arrested her in 2007, according to Agence France-Presse.
Along with her initial conviction in connection with Kercher’s murder, Knox had been convicted of slandering police and an innocent man. Knox had said officers had slapped and threatened her during the interview that led to her arrest, and she said police pressured her during that interview to implicate her former boss, a bar owner who was jailed for two weeks before he was cleared of wrongdoing. He later also accused her of slander.
While last year, an Italian Court of Cassation acquitted Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito of Kercher’s murder, Knox’s convictions for slander were upheld. The slander charge brought by the bar owner still stands with Thursday’s ruling, according to Agence France-Presse.
Knox returned to Seattle last year. Another person, Rudy Guede, was convicted of killing Kercher in a separate trial.
Knox, who was attending the University of Washington in 2007, and Kercher, a 21-year-old British student, had been housemates in Perugia for study abroad programs.
More: Agence France-Presse (via The Guardian): Italian court clears Amanda Knox of slandering police and legal officials
