Amanda Knox Will Face Slander Charges Friday

(Sept. 27) -- Amanda Knox will be back in court Friday, this time for a slander case that could tack on an additional six years to her 26-year murder sentence, according to CBS News. Knox, 23, is now accused of slandering the Italian police when she told a judge that she had confessed to killing roommate Meredith Kercher after the police had physically abused her.

"At a certain point the police began to be more aggressive with me," Knox told the judge. "I was hit in the back of the head by one of the police officers who said she was trying to make me -- help me -- remember the truth."

Knox's mother, Edda Mellas, also faces slander charges because she repeated her daughter's claims to the press.

But Mellas told CBS News' "The Early Show" today that they were not concerned about the new charges.

"It's just one more thing we have to go through," Mellas said. "We make a choice every day to try to stay positive and, you know, it's either despair every day or just really hope that they look at the evidence."

Mellas also addressed a forthcoming book, "Passeggiando con Amanda," or "Walking With Amanda," written by a fellow inmate of Knox's, Brazilian Florisbela Inocencio de Jesus, who was imprisoned on a drug conviction. The book claims that prison life hardened Knox and that she wasn't accepted by other inmates until after her murder conviction.

"I think Amanda has matured, I mean it's been kind of a forced going from a young kind of carefree college student to, you know, a situation that she's just had to grow up really fast in," Mellas said. But she also added that contrary to claims in the book and the press, her daughter didn't really know Inocencio.

Knox's slander trial will be held in Perugia.

Read more at CBS News.

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