Amanda Knox files new appeal in Italian defamation case

ROME – Amanda Knox has again appealed her defamation conviction in connection with a 2007 murder that drew global attention.

Knox, 37, has formally filed an appeal seeking to overturn her defamation conviction and seek a full acquittal, her lawyers said Monday. The case will now be referred back to Italy's highest court, the Supreme Court of Cassation in Rome.

Nearly ten years after Knox was acquitted of the murder of 21-year-old British student Meredith Kercher in the central Italian city of Perugia, an appeals court in Florence sentenced her to three years in prison in June this year for falsely accusing a local bartender in the case.

Knox did not have to serve that sentence as she spent four years in prison in Italy after her first murder conviction, which was overturned in 2011.

Knox now lives on the West Coast of the United States. She is married and has two children.

In the main trial, the American was found guilty twice of murdering Kercher, her former roommate. In the final instance, however, she was granted a complete acquittal in 2015.

The murder has still not been solved. It has been the subject of numerous books, films and television shows.

Kercher's murder in Perugia, central Italy, in November 2007 has been making headlines ever since.

The young British woman, who was spending a semester abroad in Perugia, was found dead in the apartment she shared with three other young women, including Amanda Knox.

A 20-year-old man whose fingerprints were found at the crime scene has been convicted of accessory to murder. He was released after serving 13 years of his sentence.