Leugens.nl

'Schuldig aan moord' vonnis 

Enorme blunder Britse pers

Haastige spoed om online snel te berichten vellen Guardian, Daily Mail, The Sun en Sky News.

De vier belangrijke Britse titels meldden dat de Amanda Knox had het beroep tegen haar veroordeling wegens moord op de Britse student Meredith Kercher had verloren. Knox werd vrijgesproken van de moord op Kercher, maar de rechter begon met het voorlezen van haar schuldigverklaring aan het eerste deel van de klacht, aangaande laster.

Guardian, Sky en The Sun hadden een kort bericht met het onjuiste nieuws, maar Daily Mail had er een heel verhaal omheen uit de duim gezogen inclusief de emotionele teleurstelling van de beschuldigde vrouw en haar familie: “Ze zonk terug in haar stoel met ongecontroleerd snikken, terwijl haar familie en vrienden elkaar omhelsden in tranen.”

Daily Mail noteerde ook de blije reactie van de aanklagers die zeiden dat “recht is gedaan”.

In een reactie had Daily Mail een eenvoudige verklaring: bij een rechtszaak worden tevoren heel vaak twee versies gemaakt, eentje als de veroordeelde schuldig wordt bevonden, eentje bij ‘onschuldig’. Per ongeluk is de verkeerde versie geplaatst.

Zoals vaste lezers van Leugens.nl weten volgt al te vaak op de eerste leugen een tweede om de eerste te maskeren. Zo ook van de kant van Daily Mail: Het foutieve artikel was online maar een paar minuten te zien geweest. Het heeft er echter minimaal een uur gestaan en het is ook in z’n geheel ‘gered’ voor de eeuwigheid. Hieronder volgt het. En o ja, het artikel kreeg ook bijna 70 Facebook ‘Like’ verspreidingen:

8.50pm on Monday, 3 October
Guilty: Amanda Knox looks stunned as appeal against murder conviction is rejected
Amanda Knox looked stunned this evening after she dramatically lost her prison appeal against her murder conviction.
Knox, 24, and her family had high hopes that she would be freed and allowed to return home after spending the last four years behind bars for the killing of Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy, in 2007.
In December 2009 she had been sentenced to 26 years and last night the judge and jury agreed with prosecutors that she should remain in prison as they accepted that she had brutally murdered student Meredith.
KNOX’S FINAL PLEA FOR FREEDOM
Earlier today a tearful Amanda Knox made a dramatic 10-minute final plea for her freedom to the judge and jury in the court in Perugia.
The 24-year-old, speaking in Italian, said: ‘I am the same person I was four years ago, the same person, the only thing that distinguishes me from four years ago is the four years that I have suffered. ‘In four years I have lost a friend in a brutal and unexplained way. My faith in the police has been betrayed.
‘I have had to face accusations, injustice and suggestions without foundation and I am paying with my life for something that I did not do.
‘I am not what they say I am. I am not perverse, violent, disrespectful towards life, people, these things do not apply to me and I have not done the things that have been suggested.
‘I did not kill, I did not rape, I did not steal. I was not there. I was not present at this crime. ‘I had never faced such tragedy, suffering, I didn’t know how to tackle it, how to interpret it.
‘A person who I was sharing my life with, who had the bedroom next to me, she was killed in our house and if I was there that night I could have been killed.
‘Meredith was killed and I have always wanted justice for her. I am not fleeing from the truth and have never fled. I insist on the truth. I insist after four desperate years for our innocence because it is true. It deserves to be recognised.
‘I want to go home. I want to return to my life, I don’t want to be punished and deprived of my life, future forsomething I have not done because I am innocent, Raffaele is also innocent.
‘We deserve our freedom. We have never done anything not to deserve it.’
The 21-year-old was found semi naked in a pool of blood with her throat slashed in her bedroom of the house she shared with American Knox and two Italian women.
Judge Claudio Pratillo Hellman also ruled that Raffaele Sollecito, 27, Knox’s former boyfriend, should remain in jail and confirmed the original 25-year sentence on the computer studies graduate.
As Knox realized the enormity of what judge Hellman was saying she sank into her chair sobbing uncontrollably while her family and friends hugged each other in tears.
A few feet away Meredith’s mother Arline, her sister Stephanie and brother Lyle, who had flown in especially for the verdict remained expressionless, staring straight ahead, glancing over just once at the distraught Knox family.
Prosecutors were delighted with the verdict and said that ‘justice has been done’ although they said on a ‘human factor it was sad two young people would be spending years in jail’.
Both Knox and Sollecito – who have always denied any involvement in the brutal murder – said they would take the case to the third and final level of appeal at the Supreme Court in Rome where it will probably be heard late next year.
The ten-month appeal hearing had heard from several witnesses who had given evidence in the first trial but most importantly from two independent court appointed DNA experts.
Professors Carla Vecchiotti and Stefano Conti had been asked to evaluate how the original DNA investigation had been carried out by the forensic police and highlighted several howling errors.
Key to the case had been a 12ins kitchen knife found at Sollecito’s apartment and on which was said to be DNA from Knox on the handle and that of Meredith on the blade.
But they had insisted the genetic evidence from Knox was so small it should not be used as conclusive proof against her – although they did admit it was her DNA on the handle.
The original trial and appeal had heard that Sollecito’s DNA was found on it but because it had been left lying around for six weeks and it had been picked up by officers wearing dirty gloves it was probably ‘flawed evidence’.
Prosecutors argued that they had no idea of what they were talking about and labelled them inexperienced and amateur and judge Hellman and the jury of five women and one man believed them.
Following the verdict Knox and Sollecito were taken out of court escorted by prison guards and into a waiting van which took her back to her cell at Capanne jail near Perugia and him to Terni jail, 60 miles away.
Both will be put on a suicide watch for the next few days as psychological assessments are made on each of them but this is usual practice for long term prisoners.
The decision still leaves several questions unanswered and there are serious fears that justice has not been done as many observers believe the evidence is just not beyond all reasonable doubt.
The decision meant that the court rejected the experts opinion that DNA on the knife and bra should not have been considered as evidence in the trial and it also excepted several highly dubious witness testimonies as fact.
Among these was tramp Antonio Curatolo – who has been a ‘key witness’ in two other murder cases in Perugia and who insisted he had seen Knox and Sollecito near the house the night of the murder.
But in court he was far from convincing and it also emerged he was a regular heroin user and he stumbled over many basic points in his evidence – insisting he knew it was the night of the murder as he had ‘seen youngsters queuing for nightclub buses’ at the same time.
However bus staff and disco managers all testified that no transport or venues were operating the night Curatolo claimed to have seen them as it was a bank holiday in Italy.
The court also accepted as fact the statement of former supermarket boss Marco Quintavalle who was questioned by police in the days after the murder as his business is next door to Sollecito’s apartment.
He initially had told them that he had not seen either Knox or Sollecito but then when contacted by a local newspaper six months later he changed his story and said she had been there buying bleach and he remembered her ‘blue eyes’.
He stood by his claims in court but another assistant Marina Chiriborga said she was also working that day and had not seen them in the Conad supermarket at all.
Other crucial elements include Knox’s ‘confession’ in which she admitted being at the house the night of the murder but that came after 14 hours of questioning and without a proper translator or lawyer present.
There are also question marks over the DNA evidence in the bathroom concerning bloodspots found at the scene and which are said to contain mixture of both Knox and Meredith’s genetic material.
However Knox’s lawyers argued that this evidence was inadmissible as the blood could not be dated and as she lived at the house it was obvious her DNA would be there.

Peter Olsthoorn | 05-10-11 11:47