An Italian court convicted seven scientists and experts of manslaughter
on Monday for failing to adequately warn citizens before an earthquake struck
central Italy in 2009, killing more than 300 people.
The court in L'Aquila also sentenced the defendants to six years in
prison. Each one is a member of the national Great Risks Commission. In Italy,
convictions aren't definitive until after at least one level of appeals, so it
is unlikely any of the defendants would face jail immediately. Scientists
worldwide had decried the trial as ridiculous, contending that science has no
reliable way of predicting earthquakes. Among those convicted were some of
Italy's most prominent and internationally respected seismologists and
geological experts, including Enzo Boschi, former head of the national Institute
of Geophysics and Volcanology. "I am dejected, desperate," Boschi
said after the verdict. "I thought I would have been acquitted. I still
don't understand what I was convicted of." The trial began in September
2011 in this Apennine town, whose devastated historic center is still largely a
ghost town.
The defendants were accused in the indictment of giving "inexact,
incomplete and contradictory information" about whether small tremors felt
by L'Aquila residents in the weeks and months before the April 6, 2009, quake
should have constituted grounds for a quake warning.
Times of India
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