Parents face defamation charges

The legal manoeuvrings surrounding the trial of American Amanda Knox for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher became more convoluted yesterday.

It was revealed Knox's parents are being investigated for alleged defamation for saying Italian police abused their daughter before arresting her.

This is in addition to the trial of their daughter and her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, and a civil case for £22 million ($51 million) damages - being hear at the same time as the criminal trial - being brought against them by the Kercher family.

Curt Knox said yesterday he and his ex-wife, Edda Mellas, received notice of the investigation on Saturday as they arrived in Italy for the final week of hearings in their daughter's case.

According to news agency Ansa, the alleged defamation stems from an interview the pair gave to Britain's Sunday Times in June 2008, in which the father alleged police had physically and verbally abused his daughter during questioning before she was arrested. The police have denied harming Knox.

Knox and her co-defendant Sollecito are accused of murder and sexual violence of Knox's roommate, Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old Leeds University exchange student from Surrey.

Prosecutors believe Kercher was the victim of a drug-fuelled sex game involving Knox, Sollecito and Rudy Hermann Guede of the Ivory Coast. Guede was found guilty of the same charges in a fast-track trial last year and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He is appealing against his conviction.

- INDEPENDENT