Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of murder. Reader discretion is advised.
Patrick Lumumba was a local Congolese bar owner in Italy’s Perugia, and the employer of Amanda Knox at the time of her roommate Meredith Kercher’s murder. According to AP News, Knox worked part-time in Lumumba’s bar in the university town. Knox lived with Kercher, a 21-year-old University of Leeds student. They were exchange students. Kercher was later found dead partially naked in her bedroom with her throat slit in November 2007. The killer(s) had also sexually assaulted the victim and stabbed her multiple times.
Amanda Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, faced charges in Meredith Kercher’s death. The case resulted in Knox and Sollecito’s convictions two years later, along with a third individual, Rudy Guede. Moreover, during the legal saga, Knox blamed her employer, Lumumba, for the crime when police interrogated her. Authorities then arrested Lumumba, and he served two weeks in prison, reported BBC.
The outlet stated that at the time of her first conviction, Amanda Knox was also convicted of slander for falsely accusing Patrick Lumumba. The case took a turn with Knox and Sollecito’s acquittal in 2011, but the country’s Supreme Court overturned them. An appellate then reconvicted them in 2014. The Italian Supreme Court finally cleared them of all charges in Meredith Kercher’s murder in 2015, per CNN.
However, the conviction of slander and the three-year sentence remained. Amanda Knox was facing a retrial for the slander of Patrick Lumumba and a Florence appellate court reconvicted her on the count on June 5, 2024.
A Netflix documentary, Amanda Knox, chronicles the infamous murder case and years-long legal saga. The Murder of Meredith Kercher is another film that looks at the murder of Amanda Knox’s roommate.
What had Amanda Knox accused Patrick Lumumba of?
AP News reported that during the initial investigation into Meredith Kercher’s death, Amanda Knox accused Patrick Lumumba of the murder. She made statements to the police as they interrogated her which resulted in Lamumba’s subsequent arrest. Lumumba, who owned a local Congolese bar, where Knox worked part-time, spent two weeks in prison. Knox later claimed in court that the police pressurized her into making those accusations against the bar owner.
CNN stated that a Perugia appellate court had overturned Knox and Raffaele Sollecito’s murder convictions in 2011. The acquittal came after an independent review of key forensic evidence in the murder case. However, the Italian Supreme Court overturned the acquittal in 2013, following which a Florentine appellate convicted them again in 2014. The country’s Supreme Court only cleared them on all charges in 2015.
The slander conviction and the three-year sentence that came with it had remained. Later, the European Court of Human Rights quashed Amanda Knox’s slander conviction in November 2023, per AP News. The court ruled that the interrogation was a violation of Knox’s rights as authorities questioned her without a lawyer or qualified translator present. The Italian Supreme Court had ordered a new trial on the count.
Amanda Knox has now been reconvicted of slander for falsely accusing Patrick Lumumba. BBC stated that Knox recalled the interrogation, alleging the “police threatened me with 30 years in prison.” She claimed an “officer slapped me three times saying ‘Remember, remember.'”
Knox added, “I’m very sorry that I wasn’t strong enough to withstand the pressure from the police. I never wanted to slander Patrick [Lumumba]. He was my friend. He took care of me and consoled me for the loss of my friend (Meredith). I’m sorry I wasn’t able to resist the pressure and that he suffered.”
Despite her recent conviction, Knox will not serve time in prison, reported BBC. She already served four years in prison following her initial conviction for the murder of Meredith Kercher.
