Lawyer who fought to jail Amanda Knox says they are now FRIENDS
‘She has changed a lot, I have a good opinion of her’: Italian lawyer who tried to jail Amanda Knox for Meredith Kercher’s murder says they are now FRIENDS after tearful reunion – as he breaks his silence on 15th anniversary of British student’s death
- Amanda Knox has struck up a friendship with the prosecutor who had her jailed
- Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini said that he now has a ‘good opinion’ of Knox
- The pair exchange messages on WhatsApp, sharing pictures and family news
- It comes as Meredith Kercher’s family made tribute to her 15 years after murder
- Leeds University student ‘Mez’, 21, was found dead in her room in Italy in 2007
The Italian lawyer who fought to jail Amanda Knox for Meredith Kercher’s murder says the American ‘has changed’ and they are now friends.
Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini said that he now has a ‘good opinion’ of Knox after the pair began corresponding via WhatsApp.
It comes as Meredith Kercher’s heartbroken family have released an emotional tribute to her marking the 15th anniversary of her murder – just days after pictures of former suspects Amanda Knox and ex-lover Raffaele Sollecito smiling together at a reunion in Italy were slammed as ‘poor taste’.
Leeds University student Meredith, 21, was found stabbed to death in her bedroom of the apartment she shared with Knox in the Italian hilltop town of Perugia on November 2, 2007.
American student Knox, 20 at the time, and her Italian boyfriend Sollecito, who was 23, were arrested four days later and went on to be convicted at trial twice.
Both convictions were overturned due to a startling lack of any evidence linking them to the crime.
Also arrested was Rudy Guede, who ran a local bar. His bloody fingerprints and DNA found at the crime scene ensured his conviction for murder, and he served 14 years of his 30-year prison sentence behind bars.
Knox’s correspondence with Mr Mignini began when she wrote him letters, delivered by go-between priest Don Saulo Scarabattoli, before moving to the messaging platform WhatsApp and eventually meeting again.
They now share personal news, family photographs and send holiday greetings to each other, after developing a friendship.
Amanda Knox has struck up a friendship with the prosecutor who worked to have her jailed for the death of Meredith Kercher. Pictured, Knox and her former lover Raffaele Sollecito reuniting in Italy 15 years after they were arrested and wrongly convicted of the murder of Ms Kercher
Giuliano Mignini said that he now has a ‘good opinion’ of Knox after the pair began corresponding via WhatsApp
Since the ordeal Knox has had a baby girl Eureka Know Robinson with husband Christopher Robinson, after the pair married in 2018.
‘Amanda has changed a lot and I think I can say that I know her,’ Mr Mignini told The Telegraph.
‘Now she has a family and a lovely baby girl named Eureka and is taking part in a worthwhile project regarding justice in the US.
‘We have different ideas about the trial that involved us, but now I have a good opinion of her.’
Mr Mignini and Knox met while she was visiting Perugia, with Knox crying and the pair hugging, the newspaper reported.
He did not share details of their meeting, which came about after Knox’s repeated requests.
He also told the newspaper that he would like to see a street named after Ms Kercher, adding that he doesn’t believe she got justice.
Mr Mignini’s revelation comes as Ms Kercher’s heartbroken family have released an emotional tribute to her marking the 15th anniversary of her murder.
Meredith Kercher, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was killed just three months after moving to Italy for a study abroad programme at Perugia’s prestigious university (pictured: in an undated photo released in November 2007)
Amanda Knox, 35 and from Seattle, was falsely convicted of Meredith’s murder twice and served four years in prison
Raffaele Sollecito, 38, originally from Milan, was convicted alongside his former lover
The Kercher family have always maintained a respectful silence following the death of Meredith and in their statement, it emerged parents John and Arline had died within weeks of each other in 2020.
In a tribute to Meredith, who was known by the nickname Mez, her surviving siblings said: ‘Every anniversary of Meredith’s death gives us pause for thought, but of course as with anyone who has lost a loved one – especially in such tragic circumstances – it does not take an anniversary to remember them; it’s something you carry with you every day.
‘Fifteen years has passed in the blink of an eye but yet we have lived a lifetime in between – something Meredith sadly, was never afforded.
‘Losing both our parents within just four months of each other in early 2020 brought its own tragedy but we can take some solace in knowing that they are now united with Mez and no longer have to live with the grief which consumed them.
‘Meredith will always be in our thoughts and forever in our hearts.’
Meredith’s parents Arline (centre) and John (right) Kercher – who both died in 2020 – and her sister Stephanie (left) at a press conference in Perugia in November 2007
Amanda Knox, left, and her then-boyfriend Italian Raffaele Sollecito, after they were named as suspects
Covid curbs had meant little was known of 74-year-old Arline’s death, but she is thought to have died at a hospital in Carshalton, Surrey, during the initial phase of the pandemic and is buried next to Meredith in Croydon cemetery, south London.
Brave Arline earned widespread praise for the dignified manner in which she dealt with the aftermath of Meredith’s gruesome killing, when she was stabbed and sexually assaulted while an exchange student in Perugia, Italy.
Arline travelled to the country to identify her daughter’s body, vowing to fight for justice alongside her ex-husband and Meredith’s father John, even though they divorced in 1997.
Tragically, she never got the closure she wanted and questions have once again resurfaced after Rudy Guede, 34, who was convicted of Meredith’s killing, was released from prison after serving 13 years of a 30-year term and made the pointed suggestion that Knox ‘knows the truth and I know the truth’.
Supported by her two remaining devoted children, Arline rarely spoke about the family’s anguish but once described it as a ‘nightmare’ while insisting ‘there are a lot of unanswered questions that seem to have been ignored’.
Her death in May 2020 was four months after her ex-husband John, 77, passed away.
He was found in a road close to his home in Croydon, south London with two fractured legs, a broken arm and a head injury in January 2020 and died in hospital three weeks later.
At a later inquest a coroner was unable to conclude whether he had died from a hit and run incident.
American Knox, 35, and computer engineer Sollecito, 38, were initially arrested and convicted twice of the brutal murder and spent four years in jail before being eventually cleared on appeal by Italy’s Supreme Court over lack of evidence.
Amanda Knox (pictured speaking in 2019, file photo) wrote an article called ‘Patrolling the Trolls: The Sorry State of Reporting Online Abuse’ – recalling when she received death threats in prison
Meredith Kercher’s killer Rudy Guede (pictured waving from the window of a volunteer centre in 2016, file photo) was formally released from prison 13 years after the grisly murder
Kercher, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was killed just three months after moving to Italy for a study abroad programme at Perugia’s prestigious university (pictured: in an undated photo released in November 2007)
Meredith, from Coulsdon, south London, was in Perugia as part of her university course year abroad.
Knox and Sollecito met earlier this year in the town of Gubbio, the place they had planned to visit the day Meredith’s body was found. They had not seen each other for ten years and described it as a ‘bitter-sweet reunion’.
Almost 15 years to the day of Meredith’s death, Mr Sollecito, 38, told The Mirror that it was ‘the nicest’ thing to reunite with Ms Knox, 35, after their lengthy ordeal, which saw them wrongly spend four years in prison.
Despite not having seen one another in 10 years, the two kept in touch using Whatsapp.
During the trip to Italy, Sollecito met Knox’s baby daughter Eureka and husband Christopher.
A source close to the family told MailOnline: ‘Of course they have seen the picture of Knox and Sollecito together in Italy but they don’t want to comment publicly on that as neither of them are of any interest to them – and they don’t want to add to their media visibility.
‘What they have found astonishing is the timing of the decision to publicise this reunion, [it] beggars belief in terms of respect for Meredith.’
Knox and Sollecito were arrested four days after the murder and convicted along with Ivory Coast drifter Guede, whose bloody fingerprints and DNA were found at the scene.
He is now working in a local library in Viterbo and has written a book called ‘The Benefit of the Doubt’ and has continued to insist he is innocent of Meredith’s murder.
In an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera, Guede, said:’ I was convicted of acting in conjunction with Knox and Sollecito but the judges said I didn’t materially commit the crime so if they are innocent who was I supposed to have been with ?’
Guede confirmed he was in the house at the time and added: ‘ I was there, I’m not denying it. I wasn’t in a corner. I was with Meredith and we had been making out, we started to have sex but I then went to the bathroom, we didn’t have any condoms.’
He has always insisted that when he came out he found Meredith on the floor fatally stabbed and a man and a woman in the house. Guede added: ‘The man said “Let’s go they will find the negro.”
Guede said: ‘What I will never forgive myself for is not doing enough to save Meredith. There were not enough towels to soak up the blood, I panicked and I fled. For this I will never forgive myself. I accept I behaved badly but I am not a murderer.’
Detective tracked Guede down to Germany after listening in on Skype calls he made to a friend in Italy and he was later extradited to face trial.
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