Euroscience responds to L’Aquila

The European grass-roots scientists’ group, Euroscience, has said it ‘strongly opposes’ the sentencing of seven scientists for manslaughter following the earthquake in L’Aquila in 2009.

In a statement, Euroscience said the sentence “completely misjudges the nature of science, the responsibility of the scientific community and the way they should engage with policy and society at large”. It is not scientists, but public authorities that hold the responsibility to issue evacuation orders and ensure the public is aware of damage reducing measures, says the group. “In no way was there a justifiable ground to turn this into a criminal case against scientists,” said Euroscience.