Amanda Knox’s Retrial Judge Under Investigation For Impropriety; Ex Boyfriend Rafaelle Sollecito To Fight Conviction?

The judge handling the retrial of Amanda Knox is under investigation for impropriety after giving an interview and commenting on the guilty verdict handed down on the American and her former boyfriend, Rafaelle Sollecito.

In a report by CBS, the Italian justice minister announced on Monday that an investigation is underway to establish any wrongdoing by Florence Judge Alessandro Nencini.

Annamaria Cancellieri said that she has directed the inspector general to conduct a "preliminary assessment" of the interview granted by the judge and submit a report.

During the retrial, the judge overturned the decision to exonerate Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Rafaelle Sollecito in the murder Meredith Kercher in 2007. Instead, the one-time student was sentenced to spend 28 years and six months in jail.

Meanwhile, Rafaelle Sollecito said on CNN that he will fight off the conviction after he was arrested by Italian authorities while on vacation at his girlfriend's hometown near the border of Austria. Rafaelle Sollecito said that he was about to celebrate his exoneration when he heard about the original verdict being overturned and the new panel sentencing him to 25 years in prison.

He told CNN: "I'm trying to be as positive as possible in a situation like this. It's very traumatic, the situation here now. But on the other side, I still have to fight. I have chosen to be here and to fight against this ordeal."

The defense lawyers criticized Judge Nencini particularly his statements to Corriere della Sera that, "if Amanda had gone to work, we probably wouldn't be here."

Giulia Bongiorno, Rafaelle Sollecito's chief defence lawyer, also told the same newspaper that the judge's criticism of the defense's strategy was uncalled for.

In that same interview, the judge in Amanda Knox's retrial claimed that while it's the defendant's right not to testify, "but it certainly deprived the process of a voice."

"He (Rafaelle Sollecito) limited himself to spontaneous declarations. He said only what he wanted to say without letting himself be cross-examined," the judge said.

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amanda knox
Retrial
conviction
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