PERUGIA, Italy, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- American student Amanda Knox, convicted of murdering her roommate in Italy, has been charged with slandering Italian police during her trial, authorities said.
A trial on the slander charge will be held in May 17 in Perugia, Italy, ANSA reported Monday.
Knox, sentenced last December to 26 years in prison for killing her British roommate Meredith Kercher, said during her trial seven police officers and an interpreter hit her.
Prosecutors say Knox had "deliberately" described "in a false manner" the conduct of seven police officers and a translator.
"I didn't mean to offend or slander anybody," Knox said in a statement released Monday. "I reiterate, I was only trying to defend myself. I was exercising a right."
Knox will have an appeal hearing Nov. 24 on the Kercher murder conviction, ANSA said.
Knox, 23, and her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 26, both deny killing Kercher and are appealing their sentences, as is the third convicted killer, Ivory Coast native Rudy Guede.
Guede was tried separately from Knox and Sollecito and is appealing a 16-year sentence.
