ROME (AP) — The lawyer of the family of slain British student Meredith Kercher has described Amanda Knox's invitation to the Italian Criminal Justice Festival as "inappropriate."

Knox, a former American exchange student who became the focus of a sensational murder case, arrived Thursday in Italy for the first time since an appeals court acquitted her in 2011 in the slaying of Kercher, her roommate.

Knox is on a panel discussion Saturday titled "Trial by media" in the northern city of Modena.

Lawyer Francesco Maresca told The Associated Press on Friday that "inviting her to a technical panel on justice was a mistake." He says "lawyers for both parts should have been involved."

Knox's 2011 acquittal was part of a long legal process that saw multiple flip-flop rulings before she was definitively acquitted in 2015 by Italy's highest court.