Amanda Knox Awarded Damages From Italy For Unjust Treatment During Trial

American college student Amanda Knox was studying abroad in Italy 2007 when her roommate Meredeth Kercher was murdered. Knox and her then boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were accused of raping and killing Knox’s British roommate and the courts painted Knox as a violent, sexual deviant.

A local burglar Rudy Guede was convicted in 2015 when DNA evidence tied him to the murder. Now 11 years later, the European Court of Human Rights, ruled that Italy must pay a sum totaling around $21,000 in damages to Knox for unjust treatment during her trial.

“Ms Knox had been particularly vulnerable, being a foreign young woman, 20 at the time, not having been in Italy for very long and not being fluent in Italian,” the European Court of Human Rights said in a statement Thursday.

When Knox was first questioned by police in 2007, she was questioned for five days without a lawyer and deprived of sleep. Knox says she was physically mistreated as well but the ruling said there was no evidence of these accusations. But, others took to Twitter to explain what it meant.

Knox said she felt relief when she she heard the ruling. Her lawyer Carlo Dalla Vedova confirmed it wasn’t about the money or that Amanda was looking for anything. “For her today, it was like a relief, a finish of a saga of 11 years. She has already suffered from this situation, and I don’t think we’re going to go anywhere now,'” he explained.

Knox posted a statement her own blog when she heard the ruling, and links to the post on other social media platforms.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Hey fam! Big news! The European Court of Human Rights ruled that, during my interrogations: – my right to a lawyer was violated – my right to an unbiased interpreter was violated – material evidence of psychological and physical abuse couldn’t be proved, but only because the police didn’t record my interrogation – the police failed to investigate my allegations of abuse As such, they called my slander conviction into question, and demanded Italy compensate me for legal fees and moral damages. For my statement, please visit my website: www.AmandaKnox.com. You’ll find it on my blog. Thank you all for your support.

A post shared by Amanda Knox (@amamaknox) on Jan 24, 2019 at 11:18am PST

 

Knox is now a journalist, public speaker and the author of her best selling memoir, Waiting to be Heard, which details the nearly four years she spent in Italian prison and eight years she spent on trial for a murder she didn’t commit.

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