31 January 2014
His Excellency Alain Giorgio Maria Economides
The Italian Ambassador
14 Three Kings’ Yard
London
W1K 4EH
Dear Ambassador,
We are writing to you as UK citizens who love Italy, its people and culture but are appalled by the way the Italian criminal justice system has failed the late Meredith Kercher by its vendetta against the innocent Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito.
Reliable evidence implicates only one man in her murder, Rudy Guede who was caught and convicted in a separate trial.
The case has attracted worldwide interest, partly because of the incompetence of the police and prosecuting authorities in Perugia and now largely because of the Italian Supreme Court’s reversal of Knox and Sollecito’s acquittal and the rubber stamping of new guilty verdicts by Judge Nencini’s court in Florence on January 30th.
The case has become infamous, not for the tragic nature of the crime itself, but because it is the highest profile miscarriage of justice in the world today. It shames Italy and will undoubtedly discourage students and tourists from visiting.
Italy has the dubious distinction of being the Western European country with the highest number of negative judgments made against it by the European Court of Human Rights, by a considerable margin. Its latest show trial is worthy of North Korea or Iran and takes incompetence, corruption and face saving to new levels. Italy has a broken justice system and the lives and rights of innocent people are being trampled on daily. Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito are merely the most visible examples of this process.
The late English judge Lord Denning said when referring to the Birmingham Six case, “It is better that an innocent man serves a life sentence than the law is seen to be making grave errors”. Sadly, Italy follows Lord Denning’s philosophy. It is time for this once great country to reform its legal system and insist on honest police and lawyers and true justice for its citizens.
Please forward this letter to the President.
Yours sincerely
Nigel Scott
Member of Advisory Board – Injustice Anywhere Organisation
http://www.injustice-anywhere.org/contactus.html
and eleven others.