Amanda Knox lawyers move to ban film
Lawyers for Amanda Knox and the family of Meredith Kercher are trying to block a film about the American student's alleged killing of her British flat mate before it is broadcast later this month.
Hayden Panettiere in the title role of 'The Amanda Knox Story', with Paolo Romio as Raffaele Sollecito Photo: Sipa Press/Rex Features
By Nick Squires, Rome 6:02PM GMT 07 Feb 2011
The movie, "Amanda Knox: Murder on trial in Italy", is due to air in the United States on Feb 21, but lawyers for both Knox and the Kercher family say it is prejudicial and inappropriate because the case is ongoing.
They also say it is extremely upsetting because it includes graphic scenes in which an actress playing Miss Kercher is pinned down and stabbed in the neck by her three alleged killers – Knox, Raffaele Sollecito and Rudy Guede.
Lawyers for Knox and the Kercher family have sent letters to Lifetime, the American television network which made the film, demanding that the movie not be shown and threatening to take the case to a US court unless it is withdrawn.
The channel has so far refused to comment on the matter.
"We are against the film because the trial is at a very delicate stage, and one cannot talk about the facts as if there was a crystal-clear truth," said Maria Del Grosso, one of Knox's lawyers.
Francesco Maresca, who represents Miss Kercher's family, said: "To have a film so soon, on such a violent death and with the memory of this tragedy so fresh in the family's mind, seems totally inappropriate and unjustified."
Miss Kercher, 21, from Surrey, was at the start of a year-long course in the Umbrian hill town of Perugia in Nov 2007 when she was found dead in the house she shared with Knox.
Knox, 23, from Seattle, and her Italian former boyfriend, Sollecito, were found guilty of murder and sexual assault in Dec 2009 and sentenced to 26 and 25 years in jail respectively.
They are both appealing against their convictions, and the judge in the case has authorised a full review of the hotly-contested DNA evidence in the case.
Guede had his original 30 year sentence reduced to 16 years on appeal.
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