Amanda Knox has made a heartfelt plea for freedom telling an appeal court she was innocent of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher.
American Knox declared: "I have paid with my life for things I did not commit."
Knox, 24, said she was betrayed by the Italian authorities after the killing of her flatmate in Perugia, Italy, in November 2007.
She said: "I am not who they say I am, the perversion, the violence, the lack of respect for life, and I did not do the things they say I did. I did not kill, I did not rape, I did not steal. I was not there at the time."
Speaking in Italian on the final day of the appeal hearing, she sought to persuade the two judges and the jury who will decide her fate that she did not murder Miss Kercher when a sex game went wrong.
She said: "I want to go back home. I want to go back to my life. I do not want to be punished. I do not want my life taken away for something that I did not do because I am innocent."
Tearful and hesitant, Knox said she wanted "justice" for her friend Miss Kercher. She said: "I am the same person I was four years ago. The only thing that is different is what I have suffered. I have lost a friend in the most brutal way, in an unexplained manner."
Knox and her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were found guilty in December 2009 of murdering Miss Kercher, a Leeds University student from Coulsdon, after a trial which lasted almost a year.
Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison and Sollecito to 25. In her statement on Monday, Knox stood by her ex-boyfriend, saying: "I am innocent and Raffaele is innocent too."
Sollecito, 27, also protested his innocence when he addressed the court just before Knox. And he denied accusing his ex-girlfriend of the murder. Sollecito said the claim was "totally untrue" and he said his conviction was a "nightmare" he had never woken from.
Amanda Knox has made a heartfelt plea for freedom telling an appeal court she was innocent of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher.
American Knox declared: "I have paid with my life for things I did not commit."
Knox, 24, said she was betrayed by the Italian authorities after the killing of her flatmate in Perugia, Italy, in November 2007.
She said: "I am not who they say I am, the perversion, the violence, the lack of respect for life, and I did not do the things they say I did. I did not kill, I did not rape, I did not steal. I was not there at the time."
Speaking in Italian on the final day of the appeal hearing, she sought to persuade the two judges and the jury who will decide her fate that she did not murder Miss Kercher when a sex game went wrong.
She said: "I want to go back home. I want to go back to my life. I do not want to be punished. I do not want my life taken away for something that I did not do because I am innocent."
Tearful and hesitant, Knox said she wanted "justice" for her friend Miss Kercher. She said: "I am the same person I was four years ago. The only thing that is different is what I have suffered. I have lost a friend in the most brutal way, in an unexplained manner."
Knox and her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were found guilty in December 2009 of murdering Miss Kercher, a Leeds University student from Coulsdon, after a trial which lasted almost a year.
Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison and Sollecito to 25. In her statement on Monday, Knox stood by her ex-boyfriend, saying: "I am innocent and Raffaele is innocent too."
Sollecito, 27, also protested his innocence when he addressed the court just before Knox. And he denied accusing his ex-girlfriend of the murder. Sollecito said the claim was "totally untrue" and he said his conviction was a "nightmare" he had never woken from.