Knox parents face trial over beating claims

Curt Knox and Edda Mellas were indicted in their absence in Perugia by an examining magistrate who upheld a request from Italian police to charge the couple with slander.

The trial, which has been set for July 4, follows an interview Knox's parents gave to The Sunday Times in 2008 wherein she claimed that police officers had "physically and verbally" abused their daughter during questioning.

Knox said his daughter had told them she was hit on the back of the head several times and warned the situation would only get worse if she asked for a lawyer. He also claimed she was also taunted with threats that she would never see her family again.

The officers involved have denied all the allegations.

Knox, 23, is also accused of making false claims against the police and faces a separate trial starting on May 17.

Knox was sentenced in December 2009 to 26 years in prison for the murder of Kercher in a drug-fuelled sex game that turned violent. She has repeatedly protested her innocence.

She is currently appealing against the sentence, claiming that key forensic evidence used to convict her is unreliable and should be rejected.

The next hearing is scheduled for March 12.

 Kercher was found dead on November 2, 2007, semi-nude in a pool of blood with stab wounds to the neck in her room in the cottage she shared with Knox.

Knox's then boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, and a man from Ivory Coast, Rudy Guede, were also convicted of the murder.