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[Sheb]

So, in one of the most impressive exemple of shooting the messenger I've seen in modern times, an ITalian judges sentenced 7 scientists to six years in jail for failing to predict an earthquake.

I was wondering if anyone had more or better infos, as this seems so plainly stupid. Did they hide something? Could it be an attempt to find scapegoats to protects some influencial local politicians/developers? WTF?

[Darvi]

That's one case where I think that the American justice system could have handled better. Acts of God and so on.

[shadenight123]

So...
Italian I am, narrate thus I must.
The point was that the scientists (from what our clearly 'illuminated' newspapers could tell us, because we are in a democracy where nothing is hidden from the masses! *sarcasm*) minimized the threat of the earthquake.
Where minimized meant that they said:
"We cannot prove that this earthquake, that is certainly coming, is going to destroy everything, we know there's an earthquake coming. We don't know if it's today or tomorrow, but it's coming. We don't know, thus, if YOU state, want to give the evacuation order. WE can only tell you that yes, an earthquake is coming."
And then they got the accusation that, while they did claim an earthquake was coming...
they said it wouldn't be a big deal.
or at least...they were accused and found guilty of having 'lowered' the actual threat of the earthquake.
"Yeah, the earthquake is coming, we know. BUT it's not a big earthquake. Stay in your homes."
The fact that homes should have been constructed, rebuilt, or otherwise placed in safe to build areas was never a factor.
So yeah, if anyone ever gets a physics degree in Italy, no working on finding out earthquakes.
They shoot down messengers.

[GlyphGryph]

Ah, my weekly reaffirmation of why Italy is quite literally the absolute worst place in Europe.

[Sheb]

Well, the fact is that now, in Italy, the only sensible thing for any scientist is to announce the worst possible results for anything. Disease, floods, health risks... They basically killed all sciences having to do with risks.

Shadenight, can those scientists appeal yet?

[forsaken1111]

Can we now have a volcanologist jailed for failing to predict a volcanic eruption? Maybe hold an whale biologist responsible for the money it takes to clean up a beached whale he failed to predict? Perhaps we can arrests mineralogists for failing to find new lucrative ore veins, or for failing to accurately measure an underground ore vein which peters out too soon?

[Shades]

Shadenight, can those scientists appeal yet?

As far as I know the original judgement doesn't actually come into force until after the first appeal, and I believe they can re appeal if that fails, although they might have to do so from prison.

[Darvi]

Well, the fact is that now, in Italy, the only sensible thing for any scientist is to announce the worst possible results for anything. Disease, floods, health risks... They basically killed all sciences having to do with risks.

And then, as somebody else already mentioned, they get accused for causing unnecessary panic when the eventual events are comparatively underwhelming. It's a Catch-22, really.

[Shades]

A friend of mine remembers some of the event, apparently the prosecuted ones are the ones that said others, who did predict an event, where just scaremongering and should stay quiet. Although I could do with finding citations in languages I can read....

[Zrk2]

This just makes negative sense.

[ChairmanPoo]

Ah, my weekly reaffirmation of why Italy is quite literally the absolute worst place in Europe.

That was kind of dickish, don't you think?

[palsch]

This should probably be read. It's a good summary of the current English language understanding of the case, especially if you include the updates and comments.

[Flying Dice]

So in short, there might be some basis given the direction the prosecution is taking. Basis for, say, wrongful death charges. Manslaughter is far above what their actions (if the accusations are true) warrant, and would set a rather nasty precedent.

[ChairmanPoo]

I think it's probably bullshit and it will end up being settled, for the record.

[Snowblind]

I think it's probably bullshit and it will end up being settled, for the record.

This is sort of what I want to believe, because it seems too stupid to be true. Sounds like something the government of Malawi would do, not a country in Europe.

I'm not sure how the legal system works in Italy, if they get appeals or whatever.