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Several tremors had been felt in the medieval city of L'Aquila, around 60 miles east of Rome, from mid-January onwards, and vans with loudspeakers had reportedly driven around the city spreading the warning.(telegraph.co.uk) |
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The relatives of more than 300 people killed in the devastating L’Aquila earthquake asked for £43 million in compensation from seven experts who are accused of manslaughter in failing to give adequate warning about the disaster. A court in L’Aquila, the mountain city which was devastated by the 6.3 magnitude quake on April 6, 2009, admitted 70 individuals and organisations as injured parties in the trial, including the city’s council. The six prominent seismologists and a senior public official are accused of not issuing sufficient warning over the likelihood of a major tremor at an emergency meeting six days before the earthquake hit. The seven defendants face charges of manslaughter and unintentionally causing injury, which if proven by the court, could result in prison sentences of up to 15 years. The decision to prosecute the experts has caused outrage in the scientific world, with Italian and international colleagues saying it is impossible to accurately predict an earthquake. The Seismological Society of America has described the trial as an unprecedented legal attack on science. Only one of the seven defendants was in court — Bernardo De Bernardinis, the then deputy head of Italy’s Civil Protection agency. “I felt that it was important to be here because this is my home, and also to underline the professionalism and competence of other public officials. I’m from Abruzzo, I owe it to the people of the city,” he said. The prosecution alleges that after the experts held an emergency meeting on March 31, 2009, they gave the public only an “approximate, generic and ineffective assessment of seismic activity risks as well as incomplete, imprecise and contradictory information.” The experts, part of Italy’s Great Risks commission, issued a memo that day in which they concluded that it was “improbable” that there would be a big earthquake. That meant, prosecutors say, that as more tremors hit L’Aquila in the days leading up to the quake, tens of thousands of people had been lulled into a false sense of security and did not evacuate their homes. The earthquake reduced much of L’Aquila’s medieval centre to rubble and flattened surrounding villages, leaving the region, north-east of Rome, looking like a war zone. After a three-hour hearing, the trial was adjourned to Oct 1. (Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily Website.) (Agencies)
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意大利七位地震专家因未能准确预报拉奎拉地区发生的强震而面临过失杀人罪指控。超过300人在地震中遇难。日前，遇难者亲属要求七位专家赔偿4300万英镑损失。 拉奎拉是一座山城，2009年4月6日发生里氏6.3级地震。在当地一家法庭举行的庭审中，案件受害方多达70名个人和组织，其中还包括地方议会。 六位地震学家和一位高级官员被控在地震前六天的一次紧急会议上，未能对强震的可能性做出充分预警。 这七位被告面临过失杀人罪及过失伤害罪指控，如果法庭认定罪名成立，他们将面临最多15年监禁。 起诉地震专家一事引发科学界的愤怒，本国和国际同行都表示根本无法准确预报地震。 《美国地震学会通报》称，这起案件是对科学空前的法律攻击。 七位被告中仅有伯纳多•德•伯納迪尼斯一人出庭，他当时担任意大利公民保护局的副主任。 他说：“我觉得出庭很重要，因为这里是我的家，来告诉大家其他官员的专业素质和能力也很重要。我来自阿布鲁佐（译者注：拉奎拉是阿布鲁佐区的一个省），我深受拉奎拉人民之恩。” 控方指出，专家们在2009年3月31日举行紧急会议后，仅对“地震活动的风险提出了大概的、一般的、无效的估算，而且传达了不完整、不准确、不一致的信息。” 被诉专家在会议当天发布了一份备忘录，结论是“不太可能”发生强震。他们同属于意大利高风险委员会。 控方称，拉奎拉地区在强震前小震日益频繁，但数万人误以为这里很安全，没有疏散。 地震将拉奎拉的中世纪中心震成一片碎石，还夷平了周边村落，使罗马东北的拉奎拉地区看起来更像战区。 庭审持续三小时，并延期至10月1日再审。 相关阅读 （中国日报网英语点津 Julie 编辑：冯明惠） |
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Vocabulary: manslaughter: the unlawful killing of one human by another without express or implied intent to do injury（过失杀人） injured party：an unfortunate person who suffers from some adverse circumstance（受伤害的一方，受到不公平待遇的一方） seismologist: 地震学家 lull: to deceive into trustfulness（使平静，哄骗） adjourn: to suspend until a later stated time（延期再审） |
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