Amanda Knox returns to Italy for 1st time since prison release

MILAN -- Amanda Knox has arrived in Italy for the first time since she was acquitted by an appeals court in October 2011 in the murder of her British roommate in the university town of Perugia.

Knox arrived at Milan's Linate airport on Thursday en route to the northern city of Modena, where she will participate Saturday in a panel discussion on wrongful convictions. She was escorted by plainclothes officers and kept her eyes downward as she exited the airport.

Knox's 2011 acquittal was just one step in a long judicial process of flip-flop decisions before she was definitively acquitted in 2015 by Italy's highest court. Europe's human rights court in January ordered Italy to pay Knox financial damages for failures to provide adequate legal and translation assistance during early questioning.