Italy’s highest court on Thursday confirmed a slander conviction against U.S. defendant Amanda Knox for accusing an innocent man of murdering her British flatmate 17 years ago in a sensational case that polarized trial watchers on both sides of the Altlantic.

Italy's highest court will decide on Thursday whether to uphold the conviction of Amanda Knox for slander in a case related to the murder of her British flatmate in 2007. An appeals court in Florence last year handed Knox a three-year sentence for wrongly accusing Congolese bar owner Patrick Lumumba of killing Meredith Kercher in the city of Perugia.

Italy's highest court will decide on Thursday whether to uphold the conviction of American Amanda Knox for slander in a case related to the murder of her British flatmate in 2007, the final act in a legal drama lasting almost two decades.

An Italian court will hear an appeal for her slander conviction handed down after she falsely accused a Congolese bar owner of the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher.