SCIENTISTS, POLITICIANS and public servants reacted angrily yesterday to Monday night’s court ruling in L’Aquila which saw six scientific experts given a six-year sentence for their failure to “prevent and predict” the April 2009 earthquake in L’Aquila in which 309 people died.
The six scientists had all served on the so-called Major Risks Committee which met less than a week before the earthquake and which was accused by state investigators of having issued a statement about the seismic activity in the area that was “approximate, generic and ineffective in relation to the responsibilities and duties of prediction and prevention”.
The unease of the scientific community was further highlighted yesterday by the resignation of Luciano Maiani, the current head of the Major Risks Committee, who argued that in the current climate, there was no way his committee could do its work “serenely”.
Relatives of 29 of the 309 victims took a case against the committee, testifying that their loved ones had all been convinced that there was no real danger in the area, following their perception of the outcome of a hastily convened meeting of the Major Risks Committee on March 31st, 2009.
That meeting had been requested by the then head of the Civil Protection Force, Guido Bertolaso, allegedly to reassure L’Aquila citizens in the wake of predictions from local amateur volcanologist Giampaolo Giuliani that a major quake was imminent.
Neither the local authorities nor the Civil Protection paid any attention to Mr Giuliani’s warnings, which came at the end of a four-month period marked by more than 400 minor rumblings in the L’Aquila area.
After the 45-minute meeting of the committee, Bernardo De Bernardinis of the Civil Protection Force was reported as saying: “There is no danger . . . indeed the scientific community continue to inform us that the current situation is favourable.”
Prosecutors accused the committee of having provided “incomplete, imprecise and contradictory information on the nature, cause, dangers and future development of the seismic activity in question”.
The court found six committee members guilty of multiple manslaughter, handing down not only a six-year sentence to each defendant but also a €7.8 million fine.
Politicians and scientists were yesterday critical of the sentence with many reminding the public of the impossibility of predicting earthquakes.
The speaker of the senate, Renato Schifani, commented: “This is a strange and embarrassing sentence. In future, [experts] asked to serve on committees like this will simply refuse.”
One of those sentenced, Prof Enzo Boschi, said he was “desperate”, claiming he had been expecting to be acquitted.
“I don’t even understand what I have been accused of, I never issued any reassurance to anyone, not I. All I said was that earthquakes are unpredictable . . . I would never have excluded the possibility of a major quake in the Abruzzo, I’d have to be mad to do that.”