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Amanda Knox, the young American convicted of killing British student Meredith Kercher in Italy, has insisted she was the innocent victim of a "huge mistake".
In a 20-minute statement at her appeal hearing, Knox claimed her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito was also innocent and both deserved to be free.
"The picture of me painted in court is not correct," she said, adding she was not the "diabolical" person she was made out to be.
A tearful Knox said she thinks of Meredith as a dear friend and was "grateful and honoured" to have known her.
Lawyers for the 23-year-old are questioning DNA evidence used against her.
Knox was jailed for 26 years in 2009 for murdering the Leeds University student in the cottage they shared in the town of Perugia, Italy.
Her Italian boyfriend at the time, Sollecito, was also convicted and jailed for 25 years. He is also appealing his conviction.
Another man, Rudy Guede, was convicted in a separate trial in which he admitted he was in the house but did not take part in the killing.
Prosecutors said Guede sexually assaulted Meredith, 21, and then held her down while the other two killed her in a drug-fuelled, apparently motiveless attack.
The main piece of DNA evidence linking Knox to the murder was a knife found in Sollecito's house, which was found to have traces of Knox's DNA on the handle and Kercher's on the blade.
During her trial Knox's lawyers dismissed the evidence as unreliable.
Last month Knox was charged with slander for claiming that police beat her during questioning soon after the murder.
She said then that she had been in the house at the time of the killing.
Knox is now saying she was with Sollecito in his house at the time of the murder.
Sollecito has said he does not remember if she was there or not.
The appeal in Perugia began with a hearing last month in which a nervous-looking Knox appeared briefly before the court was adjourned.
Further hearings are scheduled for next Saturday, December 18, and January 15. A final verdict is expected in February or March.
Prosecutors have said they will seek a life sentence for Knox - their original request in her first trial - if the conviction is upheld.
SKYNEWS
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