10:45pm UK, Thursday June 11, 2009

Nick Pisa,
in Perugia

Perugia murder suspect Amanda Knox has “nothing to hide”, her father has said, as his daughter prepares to testify in court for the first time in the trial.

American Amanda Knox will speak in Italian as she answers questions in court

Knox, 21, is accused of murdering Meredith Kercher, 21, who was found semi-naked and with her throat cut in her bedroom in the house they shared.

The court has already been told that she was killed after refusing to take part in a drug-fuelled sex game – but Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 25, also accused, deny the charges.

In an interview with US broadcaster CBS, her father Curt Knox, who has flown to Perugia from his home in Seattle, Washington, said: “Amanda has nothing to hide.

“She is nervous but she is also at the same time comfortable with what is about to happen.

“For the first time the judge and jury will be able to hear her version of events and they will be able to see her come across as 100% innocent.

“She will field all the questions no matter who they are from.”

He added that his daughter, who went to Perugia to study, would speak in Italian so she would not be misinterpreted.

Knox has been dubbed “Angel Face” by the Italian media due to her squeaky clean appearance – but she has also been described as sex-crazed thanks to entries on social-networking websites and leaked extracts from her prison diary.

Her lawyer Luciano Ghirgha said: “Amanda will respond to everything and will leave no stone unturned.

“She is ready to speak and she will tell the truth about what happened. She did not kill her friend Meredith.”

Knox attracted the attention of the police for her bizarre behaviour in the hours after the murder and for allegedly changing her story.

At one point she also told police – who minutes earlier had seen her doing the splits and handstands in a waiting room – that she had covered her ears against the screams as she vaguely “remembered Patrick Lumumba killing Meredith”.

As a result of her claim, bar owner Lumumba, 38, was arrested and held in custody for two weeks before being released without charge.

He is now bringing a slander case against Knox, which is running concurrently with the murder trial.

Knox will tell the court that she said what she did after stressful questioning while she was exhausted and shocked, without the presence of a lawyer or interpreter.

Last October a third defendant, Ivory Coast drifter Rudy Guede, 21, was sentenced to 30 years for killing and sexually assaulting Miss Kercher, an exchange student from Coulsdon, Surrey.