Amanda Knox says she ‘just can’t relive’ trial

Amanda Knox told NBC television her decision not to return to Italy was common sense. Picture: AP

In her first live interview about her upcoming court case, the 26-year-old claimed it was “common sense” to miss the trial over the 2007 killing of her flatmate Meredith Kercher.

The student and her ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were acquitted of the murder in 2010 after nearly four years in prison.

Speaking on NBC television’s Today show in the US yesterday she said: “I was already imprisoned as an innocent person in Italy, and I can’t reconcile the choice to go back with that experience.”

It will be the third time Knox has been on trial for the alleged murder of Miss Kercher in the home they shared in Perugia while both were students.

Prosecutors had claimed Miss Kercher’s murder came after a violent sex game gone wrong. Miss Kercher, who was 21 and from Surrey, was found half-naked, with more than 40 stab wounds all over her body.

In March, the Italian supreme court ordered a retrial in due to inconsistencies in the appeal court’s decision to release both Knox and Sollecito.

It is not yet known if the US would allow her to be extradited if she is re-convicted. She returned to her home in Seattle, Washington, after being freed.

In the interview, Knox – who was dubbed “Foxy Knoxy” – said the idea that she could be judged for not attending the trial “drives me crazy”. She said: “What is being on trial here is not my character. It shouldn’t be. What should be on trial is the facts of the case. If you look at the facts of the case, there’s proof of my innocence.

“There are so many factors that are not allowing me to go back – financial ones, ones where I’m going to school, ones where I want the court to proceed without distraction.

“I was imprisoned as an innocent person. It’s common sense not to go back,” she added.

Her lawyers are able to put her case at the retrial and the American student says she is convinced she will be cleared of her former flatmate’s killing. Sollecito also faces a retrial.

Knox maintained her innocence in a memoir released earlier this year and painted herself as a naive young woman railroaded by Italy’s justice system.

Italy’s supreme court has said the appeals court judges overlooked evidence against the accused. The high court wants a re-examination of the theory that Miss Kercher was killed during a group sex game.

Ivory Coast native Rudy Guede was convicted of the murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison – later reduced to 16 years on appeal. His fingerprints and DNA were found at the crime scene.