The L’Aquila sentences – the role and responsibility of scientists
On 10 November 2014 the L’Aquila appellate court cleared Italian scientists of the manslaughter charges after the earthquake of 6 April 2009. The six leading scientists and disaster experts, and the Deputy Head of the Department of Civil Protection [DPC], had been given, in the first instance trial in 2012, a six-year jail sentence. “The credibility of Italy’s entire scientific community has been restored” commented S. Gresta, the president of the INGV.
In the L’Aquila region, an area of high seismic activity, a seismic sequence started in January 2009 and continued in …
Scientists express concern over L’Aquila verdict
On 6 April 2009 an earthquake of a magnitude of 6.3 on the Richter Scale struck the region of L’Aquila, Italy, destroying the city center and killing 308 people and injuring 1 600. On 26 October 2012, an Italian court found six of Italy’s most respected seismologists and a seismic specialist from Italy’s civil protection guilty of manslaughter.
The verdict has raised grave concerns in the international scientific community agency. Both the European Geosciences Union and the American Geophysical Union have published articles on their respective web sites…
