Well, this one wasn’t the story I was expecting to be writing about this evening. News was released by the BBC today that Six scientists and an ex-government official have been sentenced to 6 years in prison due to to manslaughter. This is relevant to the L’Aquila Earthquake that killed 309 people in 2009. It was a 6.3 magnitude earthquake which caused devastation to both buildings and people. For months before there had been small to medium tremors occurring frequently. You’d think the scientists would be able to spot that this was a warning to say that a big earthquake was nearing, but they told the nation that infact there was nothing to worry about.

Judge Marco Billi has been working on the case since September 2011, and it took him 4 hours in court today to reach the Guilty verdict.

The defence of course said that there was no way such an earthquake could of been estimated, regardless of these warning signs. It was mainly to do with contradictory information, meaning there was less communication than there should of been and their lack of skills led to an earthquake taking over 300 lives.

Many in the online world are not sure whether or not this was a fair sentence. Some feel that the scientists should of known what was coming, whereas others feel that their defence checks out, and they could not have possibly known such a powerful quake was going to strike.

What do you think? Comments below.