From my long comment at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4687151

> The minutes of the 31 March meeting

Before that meeting, some of the scientists have been "used" by various politicians and high-level civil servant in their public speeches and interviews with the media. There are records of the director of the nation-wide emergency task-force being being interviewed and saying things like "After these afternoon quakes there is nothing to be feared, I can assure you. My fellow colleague and quake researcher can tell you the same", and one of the convicted scientists cues in "Sure, there is nothing to be feared. Indeed, these small earthquakes have released a lot of energy, making a big earthquake impossible". _Impossible_. That is not correct scientific communication, that is being the wingman of a politician being interviewed by national TV.

You're right, they held a big conference to reassure people that everything is OK and they should remain in their houses. One week later the big one came and some of those who listened to the scientists died.

Not as outrageous as what the media is reporting, but probably more interesting from the point of view of a scientist's responsibility.

In fairness to the scientists, you know as well as I do that they could have stated the risk of a big earthquake and nobody would have listened. It happens in high-risk disaster areas all the time. Sure, they should be held accountable for making false statements for political or economic gain, but saying "those who listened to the scientists died" isn't fair.

Corruption in Italy? I can't imagine.