American convicted of murdering British student Meredith Kercher testified that she had been beaten into admitting she was at crime scene

This article is more than 10 years old

This article is more than 10 years old

Amanda Knox, the American convicted of murdering the British student Meredith Kercher is due to appear in court again tomorrow, accused of slandering the Italian police by testifying that she had been beaten into admitting she was at the crime scene.

The start of her pre-trial hearing is one of several developments due to revive controversy surrounding a case that appeared to have been settled last December when Knox and her Italian former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were found guilty of the killing.

Knox's parents, who repeated her claims of police ill-treatment to the media, also face indictment proceedings for the same offence on 6 July.

The 22-year-old University of Washington student's appeal is expected to be heard in the autumn, along with that of Sollecito.

In the meantime, judges will be considering a final appeal by the third person convicted of the killing, Ivory Coast-born Rudy Guede.

Kercher, 21, from Coulsdon in Surrey, was found semi-naked with her throat slashed in a house in the central Italian city of Perugia in November 2007.

She had been sharing a flat with Knox while she and the American studied at Perugia's university for foreigners.

Knox, who was jailed for 26 years last December, could see her sentence increased to 32 years if found guilty of the slander charge, which has been laid by the prosecutor who secured her conviction for murder.

Her parents risk the same penalty of a fine and/or a prison sentence of between two and six years.

At her trial, Knox twice gave evidence that she had been coerced during an all-night interrogation after the murder.

At the end of her questioning, she signed a statement saying she had been in the house while Kercher was murdered and had covered her ears to drown out the screams.

She told the court the police had slapped her round the head when she insisted on a version of the facts which did not match theirs. In Italian, she added: "I'm sorry. But it's true."

Twice asked by the judge to identify the police officers she claimed had hit her, she was unable to do so. Police witnesses and interpreters denied her allegations.

Her father, Curt Knox, said in January that the new charges against her constituted "harassment".

The judge for the pre-trial hearing, Claudia Matteini, also oversaw the investigation of Kercher's murder. Defence sources said unsuccessful attempts had been made to get her to stand down.

Under Italian law, both defence and prosecution are allowed up to two attempts to change the outcome of a trial, the first of which can be on the evidence.

In April, both sides filed their appeals, with the prosecution seeking a life sentence for Knox, and lawyers for the American and Sollecito demanding their acquittal.

Knox's US attorney, Theodore "Ted" Simon, told the ABC television network afterwards that his team would produce a new witness to show Knox was not present when her roommate was murdered. No forensic evidence linking her to the room in which Kercher was found dead has been discovered.

Nor has any motive been established. In their written verdict, released in March, the judges said Knox killed Kercher "without planning, without any animosity or grudge against the victim".