Amanda Knox prosecutors investigated for Meredith Kercher "murder video"

(CBS) Two Italian prosecutors in the overturned murder case against Amanda Knox, including chief prosecutor Giuliano Mignini, are accused of wasting the equivalent of $240,000 in public funds, when they commissioned a controversial video intending to show how the murder of Briton Meredith Kercher unfolded, according to the British newspaper The Telegraph.

Pictures: Amanda Knox Comes Home to America

The newspaper reports the 3D video showed Kercher, Knox's British roommate, being held down and stabbed to death by Knox and her two co-defendants, all of whom were represented in the 20 minute film by animated 'avatars.'

The video was played on a big screen to the judge and jury in the original trial in 2009 at which Knox, the American exchange student from Seattle, was convicted of murder.

The British National Audit Office is investigating the prosecutors, Mignini and his deputy, Manuela Comodi, as to whether the video was a necessary part of their case. If found culpable the pair could have to pay the money back to the prosecutors' office.

Defense lawyers said the production was based on circumstantial evidence.

Knox and her then-boyfriend, Italian Raffaele Sollecito, were found guilty of murder and sexual assault at that initial trial and sentenced to 26 years and 25 years in prison respectively.

After spending four years in jail, both were acquitted on appeal last October, largely on the basis of suspect DNA evidence.

The third person accused of the Kercher's murder, Rudy Guede, was found guilty in a separate trial and is serving 16 years in jail.

Complete coverage of the Amanda Knox case on Crimesider