Amanda Knox Appears In Court To Face Slander Charges

Foxy Knoxy is in for more trouble. The seductive US student has already been sentenced to 26 years over the killing of British student Meredith Kercher. She is now being tried on charges of slandering the Italian police.

During the Kercher murder trial, the 22-year-old Knox had accused police of physically assaulting her and bullying her into a false confession to the murder.

She demonstrated to the court last June how a woman police officer had twice hit her around the head and called her a "stupid liar".

"She was saying 'Come on, come on, remember' and then – slap – she hit me. Then 'come on, come on' and – slap – another one."

Italian police strenuously denied that Knox was subjected to any physical abuse.

Knox's lawyer, Luciano Ghirga, argued that it was inappropriate for the slander charge to be heard by judge Claudia Matteini, because she had been involved in one of the preliminary hearings into the Kercher murder.

The case on Tuesday was adjourned until June 17, when another judge is likely to be assigned to the case.

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The trial is likely to start on October 1. If Knox is found guilty of slander, she could face another six years in jail.

Her appeal against the 26-year-term in the murder case is also expected to start in the autumn, meaning that the two cases could run concurrently.

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Knox's Italian boyfriend, computer studies graduate Raffaele Sollecito, and Rudy Guede, a drifter who was born in Ivory Coast but moved to Italy as a child, were also found guilty of Miss Kercher's murder.

The Leeds University student was found stabbed to death in the house she shared with Knox and two Italian women on the morning of Nov 2, 2007.

She had deep slash wounds to her neck and lay half-naked in a pool of her own blood. It was the culmination of drug-fuelled sex game, prosecution said. Knox, Sollecito and Guede have all pleaded not guilty.

Source-Medindia