FLORENCE – The Italian prosecutor who secured a 26-year murder conviction against American Amanda Knox last year was convicted yesterday of abuse of office and illegal telephone tapping in an earlier murder case.
Giuliano Mignini, chief prosecutor in Knox’s trial for the 2007 killing of British student Meredith Kerchner in Perugia, was sentenced to one year and four months for his role in the investigation of the “Monster of Florence” murders.
A police investigator was also found guilty of abuse of office during the investigation into the grisly serial murders of couples in the Tuscan countryside between 1968 and 1985.
“I cannot see any abuse in my actions,” Mr Mignini, who is appealing the verdict, told reporters after the hearing.He will be allowed to continue working while the appeals process runs its course, his lawyer said.
The two officials were found guilty of tapping the phones of journalists and police officers. His conviction is expected to hand ammunition to critics of the Knox trial.
The family of the 22-year-old American, who is appealing her conviction, has strongly criticised the Italian legal system and the prosecution’s methods.
The “Monster of Florence” case involved the serial killings of four pairs of lovers while they were parked in cars in the isolated countryside around Florence. Two men were convicted of the murders of four people. Another convicted of eight murders and acquitted on a first appeal, died before his second appeals trial.– (Reuters)