Amanda Knox: 'I can't afford to go to retrial'
Amanda Knox has said that she will not return to Italy because she is scared of prison and doesn't have enough money. The comments, which were made to a British newspaper on Sunday, come as the court date for her retrial looms.
In an interview with Britain's The Sun newspaper on Sunday, Amanda Knox explained why she did not want to return to Italy to face retrial for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher, which is scheduled for September 30th.
"If it were possible to go to the court and not have to deal with the issues of being afraid of being thrown back in prison again for an arbitrary reason, or for being able to financially afford it, absolutely I would want to be there," the 26-year-old told the tabloid newspaper.
In the interview she also complained about her misrepresentation in the media as “the dark lady who decided Meredith had to die”.
"The fact is that my presence has always been a distraction in the courtroom. Every single movement I made, every gesture, every facial expression, was the focus of scrutiny and distracted from the evidence in the case,” she said.
Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were originally sentenced to 25 and 26 years in prison respectively in 2009 for the murder of Knox’s roommate Kercher in Perugia, in what prosecutors alleged was the result of a “sex game gone wrong”.
The pair were acquitted in 2011 after serving just four years in prison. In March 2013, however, Italy’s highest appeals court overturned the acquittal and ordered a retrial in a Florence appeals court.
Knox’s comments come two weeks after her ex-boyfriend, 29-year-old Sollecito slammed what he described as a “ridiculous retrial” in an interview on British television.
Click here to watch the video of the full interview.
“It’s kind of ridiculous to me because in a system you don’t need hundreds of trials,” he told ITV’s Daybreak. “You need just one trial and then if there are mistakes of course you can appeal for a review of the trial.”
He said that, while he felt “compassion” for the Kercher family he urged them not to “stand by a prosecution theory that makes no sense”.
In April this year Knox published a memoir called Waiting to be heard, in which she protests her innocence and talks about her incarceration. The book deal was reportedly worth $4 million (€3 million).
Kercher’s half-naked body was found in a pool of blood at the house she shared with the American student in November 2007.
Currently, the only person serving time for Kercher's murder is Rudy Guede, a local drifter from the Ivory Coast who is serving a 16-year prison sentence.
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In an interview with Britain's The Sun newspaper on Sunday, Amanda Knox explained why she did not want to return to Italy to face retrial for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher, which is scheduled for September 30th.
"If it were possible to go to the court and not have to deal with the issues of being afraid of being thrown back in prison again for an arbitrary reason, or for being able to financially afford it, absolutely I would want to be there," the 26-year-old told the tabloid newspaper.
In the interview she also complained about her misrepresentation in the media as “the dark lady who decided Meredith had to die”.
"The fact is that my presence has always been a distraction in the courtroom. Every single movement I made, every gesture, every facial expression, was the focus of scrutiny and distracted from the evidence in the case,” she said.
Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were originally sentenced to 25 and 26 years in prison respectively in 2009 for the murder of Knox’s roommate Kercher in Perugia, in what prosecutors alleged was the result of a “sex game gone wrong”.
The pair were acquitted in 2011 after serving just four years in prison. In March 2013, however, Italy’s highest appeals court overturned the acquittal and ordered a retrial in a Florence appeals court.
Knox’s comments come two weeks after her ex-boyfriend, 29-year-old Sollecito slammed what he described as a “ridiculous retrial” in an interview on British television.
Click here to watch the video of the full interview.
“It’s kind of ridiculous to me because in a system you don’t need hundreds of trials,” he told ITV’s Daybreak. “You need just one trial and then if there are mistakes of course you can appeal for a review of the trial.”
He said that, while he felt “compassion” for the Kercher family he urged them not to “stand by a prosecution theory that makes no sense”.
In April this year Knox published a memoir called Waiting to be heard, in which she protests her innocence and talks about her incarceration. The book deal was reportedly worth $4 million (€3 million).
Kercher’s half-naked body was found in a pool of blood at the house she shared with the American student in November 2007.
Currently, the only person serving time for Kercher's murder is Rudy Guede, a local drifter from the Ivory Coast who is serving a 16-year prison sentence.
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