|
Post by Admin on Jul 30, 2014 14:50:31 GMT
Just weeks after RadarOnline.com’s exclusive report exposing Amanda Knox’s reported ties to Italian cocaine dealers, the prosecutor in her murder case has come forward to confirm the claims. Now, as the Italian courts prepare to fight to extradite Knox from the U.S., could this explosive news be enough to send her back to prison? And according to a new report in Italian paper Giallo, the January 19, 2008 police report explicitly reads, “During the course of the investigation into the Meredith Kercher, we have confirmed that a person whose initial is ‘F’ would occasionally supply drugs to Amanda Knox, as well as having a relationship with her supposedly of a sexual nature.” “We will not disclose his full name or . . . last name for reasons of discretion,” the newspaper continued. “But Giallo knows them.” According to the paper, “F” was a psychology student from Rome who met Knox on a train from Milan to Florence and shared a joint with her. After that, according to Giallo, “Amanda continues to have contact with F. His number is in Amanda’s cell phone contacts, and they both frequently call each other, before and after the murder.” That same man — along with two friends, named Luciano and Lorenzo — was “part of a major drug ring [in Perugia],” author Albina Perri claims. “All three ended up on trial for dealing cocaine” and “the investigation [into the ring] started from the analysis of Amanda’s mobile phone.” What’s more, the paper claims, a police report on the matter fingered one “A. Luciano” as a frequent contact of Knox’s pal “F.” According to police documents, Luciano “was arrested … because he was responsible for a murder attempt on his brother, inflicting 16 stab wounds with a kitchen knife … during an argument over money and drug dealing” on July 28, 2006, just over one year before Knox’s roommate was stabbed to death. Asked whether Knox “knew some drug dealers” who “could have had a role in the murder,” Mignini insisted “I cannot answer this,” but wrote down their names, according to Giallo’s reporter. Knox has yet to comment on the cocaine claims, but Mignini warned, “Amanda knows how to lie very well. She seemed sincere and credible.” In light of the new evidence, however, he says he does not expect her to change her testimony. “I would be astonished,” he explained. “She had plenty of occasions to tell her truth.”
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Sept 7, 2014 14:39:21 GMT
Four years ago, the British director Michael Winterbottom flew to Italy and joined me and a handful of journalists in the Perugia wine shop that had become our home from home. We had been hanging out there for months, covering the murder of British student Meredith Kercher. Over large glasses of red, hacks could be found swapping notes, arguing about the guilt or innocence of suspects Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, and listening to Knox's laywer hold forth after hearings as he propped up the bar. The result of Winterbottom's reconnaissance visit to Perugia, The Face of an Angel, premiered at the Toronto film festival – giving the maverick director's side-on view of a murder case that gripped the world. The cast is stellar – Kate Beckinsale, fresh from her roles as a in the Underworld films, Daniel Brühl, who played racing driver Niki Lauda in Rush, and Cara Delevingne, the young model who has single-handedly relaunched eyebrows. When you optioned Barbie Latza Nadeau’s book, did you have any idea that the author would become part of the story?I read the book and then I met Barbie in Rome. Barbie took me up to Perugia, and I knew she could be a central character. By the time we started the outline of the film I knew the role of the media would be one factor of the story we told. Were you in Italy for the Amanda Knox frenzy? I was there for the first day of the appeal. There were a lot of journalists rushing around, like we show in the film. And the main report was about her hair and the clothes she was wearing. These were intelligent journalists and at the same time the information for them to relay was very trivial and superficial because that’s all there was to report. This film also examines the filmmaking process and how Daniel Bruhl’s character is coming to terms with the kind of film he wants to make, and the kind of film he could get financed. After meeting Barbie, one thing you are aware of is that journalists are writing about other people’s lives. I didn’t want the filmmaker to make a remark on journalists’ lives and their morality, the filmmaker is also involved there. It allowed a discussion about the issues and what should our response be? Maybe we should make the film more about the central truth of the fact that someone has lost a daughter. Why was it important for you to keep the victim at the centre of things?The Kercher family had talked a lot about that, with a huge amount of dignity, the reasons they went for the trial was to make sure that amongst the chaos, it was remembered that someone had lost their life. That was one of the central things I thought about. We wanted to make that a general point, it’s about the possibility of love for someone who is not there, and fathers and daughters…Daniel’s character is missing his daughter in a much more mundane way. What about the fantastical elements inspired by Dante? I never thought I’d see a CG dragon in a Michael Winterbottom film. All those things are taken very directly from Dante. Dante writes so much about love and loss.It was also a bit of comedy – it’s pathetic that Daniel’s character wants to use Dante as a prop. But there are elements of The Divine Comedy that are relevant, so I wanted to have my cake and eat it too, using it in the film as a device but also mocking how bad an idea it was for a film. But I don’t want people to think it’s a big CGI film, there are about 4 seconds of that (laughs). This is your second project in Italy in a row. It’s been a coincidence. For The Trip [To Italy] it was just an enjoyable place to do a road movie for food, it’s a good excuse to have great meals on the Italian coast. For this film, part of the story is the culture clash. The American angle, the British angle and the Italian angle. Part of the media coverage was about the Italian justice system and was it a fair trial?…These journalists have looked at this for seven years and they don’t even agree on the correct verdict. This is model Cara Delevingne’s first big film role. Did you see a spark in her immediately?I was totally sure she could do it. I met her once [during casting] for 15 minutes and she was great. I wanted someone full of life but also on that cusp between being a teenager and a grownup. She’s got amazing energy. She’s got this great sense of enjoying things and getting the most of out life…When it came to the script she immersed herself into the part. Have the families of Meredith Kercher or Amanda Knox seen the film?We haven’t had any contact with the Knox family but Meredith’s brother has seen it. We dedicate the film at the end ‘In Memory of Meredith Kercher,’ I didn’t want to do that unless someone from her family had seen it. Do you think the film will have people talking about the case in new way?When we released the trailer for buyers in February, immediately there was internet noise about it. But if people watch the film people will see we don’t have an opinion about what the correct verdict is. It’s more about someone who lost her life, and those experiences ahead of her are taken away from her.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Sept 15, 2014 13:28:25 GMT
Amanda Knox’s lawyers have threatened to sue the makers of a controversial new film about the murder of Meredith Kercher, which has won the approval of the dead British exchange student's family. The BBC movie, by British director Michael Winterbottom and starring Kate Beckinsale and Cara Delevingne, has won the apparent blessing of the Kercher family. The film is based on the book ‘Angel Face’, written by CNN journalist Barbie Latza Nadeau, who covered the brutal 2007 murder of Kercher, in the picturesque hilltop university town of Perugia. Miss Kercher, 21, was found half-naked with her throat slit in the cottage she shared with Amanda Knox. Knox and then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito served four years for the murder, before being released on appeal in 2011, but were sensationally re-convicted earlier this year. The American, nicknamed Foxy Knoxy, remains at large in the US while appealing to Italy’s Supreme Court. If she loses her final appeal she will become a fugitive, and the subject of a high profile extradition tussle. Knox’s lawyer Luciano Ghirga pointed out that Knox’s case was still ongoing, and said the American creative writing graduate would sue if the film ‘was damaging to her image.’ He said he hadn't seen it but 'supposed - knowing the author - that it implies that Amanda is guilty'. ‘There have already been at least two films and 12 books about the case. If the film is based even loosely on the murder in Perugia and if it is damaging to Amanda’s image, we will be asking for damages, as we have done in other cases.' But the writer insists the film does not 'place the knife in Knox's hand'. But the Kercher family, who were given a sneak preview of The Face of an Angel, have given their apparent blessing to the film, even allowing it to be dedicated to Meredith’s memory. Director Michael Winterbottom, who showed the film privately to Meredith’s brother Lyle, said it was important to him to keep the victim at the centre of the story, rather than Knox. Mr Winterbottom said: ‘The Kercher family had talked a lot about that, with a huge amount of dignity, the reasons they went for the trial was to make sure that amongst the chaos, it was remembered that someone had lost their life. That was one of the central things I thought about.’ He said he had dedicated the film to Meredith only with the Kerchers' permission, telling Screen International: ‘I didn’t want to do that unless someone from her family had seen it.' Miss Nadeau, played by Beckinsale in the film, explained: 'There was a meeting in London with Michael and Lyle Kercher where he showed him the film. It was a very private thing. But if the Kerchers had objected to the film, the dedication to Meredith wouldn’t have been there.' She said: ‘I remember worrying that a movie about this murder would be ultimately sensational, bloody, and disrespectful to Meredith Kercher, who didn’t deserve to be a victim once more.’ She told the Mail: ‘Anything with Knox as the star would be disrespectful to Meredith. But the film is not really about the murder, it just uses it as a jumping off point.' The writer claimed she was not worried about being sued, as she said the film does not ‘place the knife in Knox’s hand’.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Sept 30, 2014 15:52:40 GMT
Being accused of brutally murdering her college roommate apparently hasn't impacted Amanda Knox's love life, as the 27-year-old was spotted out this weekend with a new boyfriend in New York. Knox was last known living in Seattle with her classical guitarist boyfriend James Terrano, but it appears she has moved on to another musician - an aspiring rocker named Colin Sutherland, 27. The new couple were pictured passionately kissing on the beach and on the boardwalk during a day-trip to Coney Island, and holding hands while shopping vintage stores with a female friend in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwick. Knox and Terrano were last pictured together in July, when she was seen handing over $100 in cash to her boyfriend, in an emotional meeting in which she both sobbed and laughed. It's unclear when the two broke up, or for what reason. They were both oblivious to everything around them and only seemed bothered about each other, like a pair of teenagers,' a bystander told The Sun. According to a website advertising one of Sutherland's creative projects, the 27-year-old describes himself as a 'nomad by nature'. A LinkedIn profile for Sutherland - who goes by the name 'Thunderstrike after the Marvel comic-book character - says he studied French at Sarah Lawrence and lives in Brooklyn. It's unclear if Knox has moved to New York to be with her new man, or if she was just visiting. She was set to graduate from the University of Washington this past June with a degree in creative writing. These new pictures are surfacing just one year after Knox was pictured hugging her 30-year-old ex-boyfriend, Italian Raffaelle Sollecito, on another trip to the Big Apple. The two have since been re-convicted in the murder case of British student Meredith Kercher, who was found dead in 2007 at the age of 21 in the apartment she shared with Knox in Perugia, Italy. Sollecito and Knox were initially found guilty in Kercher's death but cleared on appeal in 2011, when Knox returned to her Washington state hometown.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Mar 28, 2015 12:05:30 GMT
In a final ruling, Italy's highest court on Friday overturned the convictions of American Amanda Knox and her former Italian boyfriend in the sensational murder case of Knox's British roommate. The six judges announced their decision about 10:30 p.m. in Rome (5:30 p.m. ET). They began deliberating at noon after closing arguments by the lawyer for Raffaele Sollecito, Knox's boyfriend when 21-year-old Meredith Kercher was stabbed to death in late 2007. The ruling, which struck down last year's guilty verdicts by a Florence appeals court, which brings the eight-year case to a close. The judges concluded that the evidence did not support a conviction. Their reasoning will be released within 90 days. The 27-year-old Knox did not return to Italy from her Seattle home for the final appeal. Knox, who had consistently maintained her innocence, was "very worried" in the days before the ruling, said her Italian lawyer, Carlo Dalla Vedova. Sollecito's lawyer made a final appeal to the court Friday, saying there were "colossal" errors in the Florence appeals court verdict. In her two-hour argument, Giulia Bongiorno compared Sollecito to Forrest Gump, the naive, dim-witted-but-earnest fictional hero of the book and 1994 movie starring Tom Hanks. "He is an innocent who became wrapped up in spectacular and gigantic events that, like Forrest Gump, he did not fully realize," she said, saying her client was "was watching cartoons" at home when Kercher was killed. Knox was 20 and studying in Italy in November 2007 when Kercher was found dead of multiple knife wounds in the flat they shared in the picturesque hillside town of Peruggia. Authorities determined she had been sexually assaulted and her throat had been slashed. Under police questioning, Knox said she was in the flat and heard the murder but did not participate. She later recanted, saying she gave the statement under duress. Knox, then-boyfriend Sollecito and another man, Rudy Guede, were charged with the murder. Guede, whose DNA was found on Kercher's body, agreed to a fast-track trial and was convicted of murder in 2008. The native of the Ivory Coast is serving 16 years in an Italian prison. Amanda Knox has been speaking after she and her Italian ex-boyfriend were again cleared of the murder of her former flatmate, Meredith Kercher in the final ruling of a long-running case. She told the press: "I'm incredibly grateful for what has happened, for the justice I have received". When asked about Meredith Kercher, she said: "She deserved so much in this life, I'm the lucky one."
|
|