AS AN obviously happy Amanda Knox flew out of Rome’s Fiumicino airport yesterday en route to the US, Perugia public prosecutors confirmed they intended to appeal Monday night’s appeals court ruling that acquitted both her and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito of murder.
Ms Knox (24) and Mr Sollecito had been sentenced to 26 and 25 years respectively for the November 2007 murder of English Erasmus student Meredith KercherVideo footage showed a relieved and happy Ms Knox making her way through the Fiumicino departure lounge yesterday morning, surrounded by a large family group.
While she was enjoying her first taste of freedom after four years in prison, Perugia public prosecutor Giuliano Mignini confirmed he would now appeal to Italy’s “Cassazione” or supreme court, telling Sky Italia TV.
“This was a mistaken verdict, we will take this to the third level [supreme court] and we’ll see who is right”.
Mr Mignini pointed out that Monday night’s acquittal had confirmed a three-year prison sentence handed down to Ms Knox for “calumny” for wrongly accusing, shortly after her arrest, Congolese bar owner Patrick Lumumba of the killing of Meredith Kercher.
He said: “How can you separate that from the murder charge?”
Mr Mignini also suggested that the unprecedented international media interest generated by the case, allied to much hyped campaigns in favour of Ms Knox, had worked against the best interests of justice in Perugia.
This point was reiterated by another of the public prosecutors, Manuela Commodi, who told reporters this was “a totally predictable sentence”, in reference to the media pressure.
While the prosecutors expressed their frustration, the family of Meredith Kercher revealed their sense of bewilderment and disappointment at the acquittal.
Speaking to reporters in Perugia yesterday, Lyle Kercher, brother of Meredith, said the family found it hard to understand the total rejection of the December 2009 ruling that had found Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito guilty.
“We accept the decision and respect the court and the Italian justice system. We do find though that we are now left looking at this again and thinking how a decision that seemed so certain two years ago has been so emphatically overturned . . . it feels very much like back to square one,” said Mr Kercher.
One aspect of the media hype generated by this case was the sustained speculation that US networks are ready to offer millions of dollars for the first interview with Ms Knox.
That same speculation, however, claimed that one of the networks had a private jet on standby near Perugia, ready to fly Ms Knox straight back to the US immediately after Monday night’s hearing.
Those reports proved unfounded with Ms Knox and family members travelling to Rome late on Monday night to stay in a pre-booked hotel. Then early yesterday morning, the Knox group travelled home to Seattle via London’s Heathrow on regular commercial flights.
Before leaving Italy, Ms Knox thanked those people who, through the Italian-American foundation, had supported her during her imprisonment.
“I will always be grateful for their courageous commitment . . . to those who wrote to me, to those who defended me . . . who prayed for me.”
Ms Knox’s co-defendant, Mr Sollecito, had returned to his native Giovinazzo, close to Bari, directly from Perugia.
His family said yesterday it would be some time before he would meet the media since it would take him some time to adapt to life out of prison.
FOR AND AGAINST: MEDIA REACTION
MEDIA REACTION in Italy, the US and Britian to the acquittal of Knox and Sollecito followed stereotypical national lines. American commentators were pleased, Italian commentators sceptical and UK commentators questioned the feasibility of a fair trial in Italy. On its website, US TV news channel Fox was typically assertive. “Bottom line: the appeals jury who acquitted Knox did the right thing.”
The Los Angeles Timesreiterated a point that has dominated much US coverage of this case over the last four years: that Knox had been subjected to a character assassination, essentially by Italian media. "In person, in prison and in the media, Knox was subjected to all manner of outlandish, misogynistic behaviour . . . The focus on her sexuality suggests that civilisation can easily tip backward to the primeval era when the feminine was classified, worshipped and feared in the form of powerful archetypes: Madonnas and Dianas, virgins and whores . . ."
Knox's home town paper, The Seattle Times, also expressed its satisfaction: "An Italian jury concluded what many have long suspected – Knox certainly was guilty of goofy, insensitive behaviour and pot use. But there was never sufficient evidence to prove she murdered her room-mate . . ."
But the enthusiastic US reaction prompted some caustic comment in Italy. La Repubblicaof Rome observed: "It is both heartwarming and instructive to observe America's indignation and then its joy, first for the judicial error and then for the acquittal of 'The Girl of the West', Amanda Knox. It is a pity that an equal amount of indignation and hysterical lobbying is not mobilised in the USA when someone is executed on the basis of shaky circumstantial evidence or confessions that are subsequently withdrawn . . ."
Italian website daringtodo.com struck the same theme: “Until yesterday, we were some sort of mediaeval offspring, expression of a justice system that makes the Inquisition look pale by comparison and which is perennially witch-hunting. Now that Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox have been absolved, the Americans have decided we are a civilised country after all, one of law and order.”