Friday, May 27, 2011

Italian Seismologists Prosecuted for Equivocating

This is sure to encourage scientists to make predictions:
ROME—Enzo Boschi, the president of Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), will face trial on charges of manslaughter with six other scientists and technicians for failing to alert the residents of L'Aquila ahead of the devastating earthquake that struck the central Italian town on 6 April 2009, killing 308 people.
Just what did they do that merits criminal prosecution?
Judge Giuseppe Romano Gargarella...said that the seven defendants had supplied "imprecise, incomplete and contradictory information," in a press conference following a meeting held by the committee 6 days before the quake. In doing so, they "thwarted the activities designed to protect the public," the judge said.
So...the scientists are to be prosecuted for being equivocal about the likelihood of an event in the future?

The whole article is here.

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