Amanda Knox vows to fight 'unfair' decisions and 'unfairness' after defamation case

Amanda Knox, who spent nearly four years in prison before being cleared of murdering Meredith Kercher, now claims she was unjustly persecuted her entire adult life.

Amanda Knox arrives with her husband Christopher Robinson at the courthouse in Florence(AFP via Getty Images)

Amanda Knox says she is a victim after a court upheld a ruling that she had slandered a man over the murder of British student Meredith Kercher.

The 36-year-old American, who spent nearly four years in prison before being exonerated of the murder of her roommate, now claims to have been unjustly persecuted all her adult life.

Knox falsely accused the bar owner, Patrick Lumumba, of involvement in the 2007 murder in Perugia, Italy. On Wednesday, she wept as a Florence appeals court ruled that her defamation conviction and three-year prison sentence would be upheld.

Although Knox no longer faces prison time due to the years she was wrongly imprisoned, she wants to appeal the decision and clear her name.

Meredith Kercher was a British exchange student from the University of Leeds who was murdered in 2007.(PENNSYLVANIA)

She said: “I have been unjustly accused for 17 years. I spent four years in prison as an innocent person. Seventeen years is my entire adult life during which I have been unjustly accused.” Knox, from Seattle, continued: “I didn’t sleep.

“I feel sad but I am determined. I have nothing to hide and I will never stop telling the truth. I did not slander Patrick (Lumumba). I didn’t kill my friend. I will come back here as many times as necessary to fight against this injustice.

Knox said she was surprised by the verdict and thought it was a “very clear case”, arguing that one of the key documents in the case made it clear that she did not know who had killed Meredith.

She continued: “From the beginning, I just wanted to do the right thing and tell the truth. Sometimes I feel like I can’t do anything. I try, I will forever.

The murder of Meredith, from Coulsdon, south London, in the idyllic town of Perugia, made international headlines.

Suspicion falls on Knox, then a 20-year-old exchange student, and her new boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito. Meredith, a 21-year-old exchange student from the University of Leeds, was found half-naked and bleeding in her roommates’ house. Her throat was slit and she was stabbed several times.

Knox and Sollecito were convicted of murder, then acquitted, then again ultimately cleared of all charges in 2015. But Knox’s slander conviction remained and still remains pending.