Amanda Knox Court Absence Blasted By Barman

By Nick Pisa, Sky News Reporter

Amanda Knox has been urged to come to court ''if she is as innocent as she claims'' - just hours before a new verdict is expected in the Meredith Kercher murder case.

The comments come from Patrick Lumumba, the barman Knox wrongly accused of killing Miss Kercher in 2007.

Mr Lumumba was held in custody after Knox told police she had ''covered her ears as he killed'' Miss Kercher in the student house the girls shared.

However, he was cleared after two weeks when a university professor provided a watertight alibi, while Knox was charged with murder and sexual assault along with her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito.

Patrick Lumumba lost his livelihood after Amanda Knox wrongly accused him

The pair's conviction was overturned on appeal but the Italian Supreme Court ordered a retrial of that appeal and the verdict is due this week.

Knox has remained at home in Seattle and neither she nor Sollecito will be in court.

Mr Lumumba, who lost his bar following Knox's allegations and is now an unemployed musician, wants to see the 26-year-old back in the courtroom.

Miss Kercher was found with her throat cut

Speaking ahead of Thursday's verdict, he said: ''If she (Knox) is innocent she should come to court for the decision. I will be there. If she is so sure that she had nothing to do with it, then she should be in court to hear the judge's decision.

''I think she is running away - I'm the one who has been left in a real mess because of what she said. My bar closed and my business folded - I have nothing now and no work.

''Because of what she said I was put in jail for two weeks and my bar was impounded by the police for four months. My friends tried to help me as best they could but it wasn't enough because they were all having a hard time as well.

''The false arrest had a real negative impact on my personal life and my business life - things have never really recovered and it's all because of what Amanda wrongly told the police. I haven't even been paid any compensation by her that I'm owed.''

As a result of the false accusation, Mr Lumumba was dragged from his home in front of his children and wife in a dawn raid.

Knox was convicted of slandering him and ordered to pay him €22,000 in 2011.

Knox and Sollecito, 29, were originally charged in 2007 after Miss Kercher was found semi-naked with her throat cut in the bedroom of her house in Perugia, Italy.

Knox was sentenced to 26 years and Sollecito to 25 years but in 2011 the verdicts were overturned and both walked free.

Amanda Knox and Raffaelle Sollecito won't be in court this week

The retrial began last September in Florence, 100 miles from where the murder took place.

Though Knox has remained in the US, she did email the court to protest her innocence in a statement read out by her lawyer in which she insisted she ''was not a monster".

Judge Alessandro Nencini described the emailed statement as unusual, adding that defendants ''should be in court if they wanted to speak".

It is not entirely clear if the Italian authorities would seek Knox's extradition even though a treaty exists between both countries.

To add to the confusion any verdict will go to a further automatic appeal at the Supreme Court so a final decision could be years away.

The house where Meredith was killed in 2007

The retrial has shifted the motive away from a sex game gone wrong to a simple bitter feud of jealousy between Knox and Miss Kercher - with the British girl uncomfortable at her American flatmate's cleanliness and habit of bringing men home.

However, Knox and her lawyers insist the theory is rubbish, with Knox herself stressing that the two were ''good friends'' and that she has expressed several times a desire to visit Miss Kercher's grave and meet her family.

Miss Kercher's sister Stephanie and brother Lyle are expected to travel from their home in Coulsdon, Surrey for the verdict - the third time in seven years they have attended a court trial.

A third man, Ivory Coast drifter Rudy Guede, 27, is serving a 16-year sentence for murder and sexual assault and he is expected to be released on parole next year. He, like Knox and Sollecito, has always protested his innocence.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

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