http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29996872
A group of Italian scientists convicted of manslaughter for failing to predict a deadly earthquake have had the verdict quashed.
The seven men had been given six-year jail sentences after an earthquake devastated the medieval town of L’Aquila in 2009, killing 309 people.
The verdict triggered alarm, with some saying that science itself had been put on trial.
On Monday an appeals court cleared the group of the manslaughter charges.
Judge Fabrizia Ida Francabandera ruled that there was no case to answer.
“The credibility of Italy’s entire scientific community has been restored,” said Stefano Gresta, the president of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology.
The seven men – all leading scientists or disaster experts – had been members of a committee convened in L’Aquila in March 2009 following a series of tremors in the region.
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