This article is more than 9 years old

This article is more than 9 years old

The parents of Amanda Knox, the US student convicted of murdering her British flatmate Meredith Kercher, are to face libel charges over their claim that Italian police abused their daughter.

The unusual charge against the US couple stems from an interview they gave to the Sunday Times three years ago, in which they alleged that she had been physically and verbally mistreated during questioning after Kercher's murder in 2007. The police denied harming Knox.

Curt Knox and his wife, Edda Mellas, were charged in their absence by a court in Perugia . They are scheduled to stand trail on 4 July.

A repesentative of the Knox family said there would be no comment on the development.

Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were convicted in 2009 of sexually assaulting and murdering Kercher in the cottage the two women shared in Perugia. Kercher was found semi-naked, with her throat slashed.

Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison, and Sollecito to 25 years. Both deny wrongdoing, and their appeal against conviction has begun.

Another man, Rudy Guede from the Ivory Coast, was also convicted of the killing. Italy's highest criminal court has already upheld Guede's conviction and his 16-year-prison sentence.

Knox's parents are accused of falsely claiming that police officers hit her on the head and threatened her with violence.

The Italian court was told, according to the Italian news agency ANSA, that "they said, contrary to the truth, that Amanda had not been assisted by an interpreter, that she hadn't been given food or water, that she had been abused both physically and verbally", and "that she had been slapped on the back of the head and threatened".

Libel is a criminal charge in Italy, and carries a sentence of six months to three years, as well as a fine.

In their appeal against conviction, lawyers for Sollecito and Knox are arguing that there is no reliable forensic evidence to place either of the appellants at the scene of the knife attack that killed Kercher.

The prosecution at the trial acknowledged it could not supply a motive for the involvement of Knox or Sollecito in the killing.