Amanda Knox asks Italian court to clear her of slander charge

Amanda Knox arrives at the Florence courtroom (AP)

Amanda Knox has asked eight Italian judges and jury members to clear her of a slander charge that stuck even after she was exonerated over the brutal 2007 murder of her British flatmate while the two were exchange students in Italy.

In a soft and sometimes breaking voice, Knox told the Florence court that she wrongly accused an innocent man – the Congolese owner of the bar where she worked part-time – of killing Meredith Kercher while she was under intense police pressure during overnight questioning without the benefit of a lawyer or competent translator.