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| Amanda Knox |
Amanda Knox has appeared in court to face charges of slandering murder squad detectives who led the investigation into the Meredith Kercher killing.
The 23-year-old is accused of slandering seven police officers after she told her original trial she had been ''cuffed twice'' around the back of the head during questioning.
Dressed in a white shirt and black trousers, the American student spoke to confirm that she understood Italian by trial judge Daniele Cenci for the brief hearing.
The 23-year-old is accused of slandering seven police officers after she told her original trial she had been ''cuffed twice'' around the back of the head during questioning.
Dressed in a white shirt and black trousers, the American student spoke to confirm that she understood Italian by trial judge Daniele Cenci for the brief hearing.
Knox was jailed for 26 years in December 2009 for the brutal sex killing of Kercher, 21, who was found semi-naked and with her throat cut.
During the trial she claimed she had been ''hit on the head'' by police during questioning about the murder and prosecutors immediately launched a case against her.
At an earlier hearing in Perugia, where she is serving her sentence, she had insisted she was defending herself and attempts to have the case thrown out by her legal team were overturned.
Knox made the allegations in June 2009 during her trial and they had earlier been repeated by her parents Curt Knox and Edda Mellas, who are also facing a similar charge after giving a newspaper interview.
The slander charge came about as in the murder trial Knox recalled her police questioning and said: ''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.''
Under Italian law slander is punishable with a fine and/or a prison sentence of between two and six years.
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| Miss Kercher |
Besides the police officers she is also said to have slandered an interpreter by telling the court she had suggested to Knox to say that perhaps someone else was involved in the murder.
Mr Knox was in court for the hearing and it was the first time he had seen his daughter in more than a year as he has found a new job and been unable to get time off work.
Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 26, who was also convicted of the murder, are currently appealing their sentences and the next hearing will take place on Saturday.
Two court-appointed independent forensic experts had been due to report back on their findings over contested evidence including a 30cm kitchen knife on which DNA from Knox was said to be on the handle and that of Miss Kercher on the blade.
Her defence has argued the results are so low they should not have been used to convict her and in leaked preliminary findings the experts have confirmed the samples are too low to re-examine.
They have also asked for extra time to examine documents from the forensic investigation and the appeal court judge has given them an extra 40 days, meaning a verdict is unlikely before the summer.
Miss Kercher, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was in Perugia as part of her Leeds University degree and had only been in Italy for two months before she was murdered in November 2007.
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