Amanda Knox wins small Italian court victory
PERUGIA, Italy – The Italian court system has handed a small victory to Seattle college student Amanda Knox, awarding her $55,000 in damages in an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit, according to media reports.
Knox, who was convicted last December of murdering her British roommate, had filed a lawsuit against an Italian book author and a media company that ran excerpts from her personal diary and revealed details of her sex life.
Knox's lawyer Carlo Dalla Vedova argued the publication of "Amanda's personal and private property" was an invasion of her privacy, and the court agreed.
The judge ordered that the damages be paid jointly by author Fiorenza Sarzanini and RCS Group, the publishers of newspaper Corriere Della Sera, which serialized the best-selling book "Amanda and the Others."
The book and newspaper included direct quotations from Knox's diary describing how she wanted to write a song about her roommate's death, among other details of her personal life.
Other published excerpts from her diary described her shock and anger over her roommate's "horrible" death.
The book also described Knox's sex life and included an account of an Albanian man's "wild" sexual encounter with Knox, which turned out to be fictitious.
Knox, 22, and her ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were convicted of killing Knox's roommate, Meredith Kercher, in the Perugia apartment she and Knox shared. The prosecution claimed that Kercher was stabbed to death during a sex game in November 2007.
Knox was sentenced to serve 26 years in prison, and Sollecito was given a 25-year prison term.
A third defendant, Rudy Guede, has been sentenced to 16 years.
All three deny wrongdoing and are appealing their convictions.
Knox, who was convicted last December of murdering her British roommate, had filed a lawsuit against an Italian book author and a media company that ran excerpts from her personal diary and revealed details of her sex life.
Knox's lawyer Carlo Dalla Vedova argued the publication of "Amanda's personal and private property" was an invasion of her privacy, and the court agreed.
The judge ordered that the damages be paid jointly by author Fiorenza Sarzanini and RCS Group, the publishers of newspaper Corriere Della Sera, which serialized the best-selling book "Amanda and the Others."
The book and newspaper included direct quotations from Knox's diary describing how she wanted to write a song about her roommate's death, among other details of her personal life.
Other published excerpts from her diary described her shock and anger over her roommate's "horrible" death.
The book also described Knox's sex life and included an account of an Albanian man's "wild" sexual encounter with Knox, which turned out to be fictitious.
Knox, 22, and her ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were convicted of killing Knox's roommate, Meredith Kercher, in the Perugia apartment she and Knox shared. The prosecution claimed that Kercher was stabbed to death during a sex game in November 2007.
Knox was sentenced to serve 26 years in prison, and Sollecito was given a 25-year prison term.
A third defendant, Rudy Guede, has been sentenced to 16 years.
All three deny wrongdoing and are appealing their convictions.