(ANSA) - Strasbourg, May 17 - The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday accepted an appeal against Italy presented by Amanda Knox, the American woman acquitted by the Cassation Court of having a part in the murder of Meredith Kercher in Perugia. In the appeal, Knox says she was subjected to an unfair trial and was maltreated during questioning. The court judged Knox's dossier to be valid and told the Italian government of its decision so that it can defend itself.
In March 2015 the supreme Cassation Court of appeals acquitted Knox and Italian former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito in Kercher's 2007 murder, saying that evidence didn't physically link the pair to the scene of the crime. It was the end of an eight-year judicial ordeal for Knox who was first found guilty, then acquitted and finally cleared after a retrial.
Knox's appeal to Strasbourg regards the run-up to her first trial.
In it, she claims she was not given access to a lawyer who spoke English and was rapped on the head during questioning on November 6, 2007, four days after Kercher's murder - allegedly constituting inhumane and degrading treatment.
Source:
http://www.ansa.it/english/news/gen...l-3_7db61304-0648-4cee-a006-c5a85bcbf39d.html
Comments: The article is good. Of course, an application to ECHR should not be called an "appeal", as this article does, because that implies a relationship between ECHR and the domestic court that does not exist, and the ECHR is not considering issues of guilt or innocence of the applicant, but rather whether or not the Respondent State (Italy, in this case) violated the Convention rights of the applicant. Thus, a person who has been found guilty by a domestic (State) court remains guilty, but under certain findings - such as unfair trial - by the ECHR, must be retried by the State court with full observance of his or her rights. In Italy, this is called a revision trial. In Amanda's case, the revision trial would necessarily exclude as evidence of guilt all of Amanda's statements obtained under duress or without a lawyer; this would lead to the conviction being vacated (dismissal or acquittal) due to a total lack of evidence of calunnia.