In controversial ruling, a judge cuts compensation to the relatives of the deceased by 30%, because they had “careless behavior”
The 309 people who lost their lives in the earthquake that struck central Italy on April 6, 2009, particularly the city of L’Aquila, are partially responsible for their own deaths, as they were not allowed to return to their homes after the vibrations preceding the great shock, which reached 6.3 degrees on the Richter scale. That is the argument that led Judge Monica Croci, of the Court of L’Aquila, to reduce by 30% the compensation paid to the heirs of the 24 who died in the earthquake as a result of the collapse of an apartment building in the center. diminish this city.
The victims’ families had denounced the construction company of the building, which housed several university students, as well as the city council and two ministries, as “serious negligence” had been committed in the building without being detected by the mandatory checks by government departments. .
The magistrate’s recent verdict, reiterated by local media on Wednesday, has referred to “confiscated behavior” on the part of the victims as they re-entered the building to spend the night despite two in the afternoon. shakes had been from April 5 and shortly after midnight on April 6. The last earthquake occurred at 3:32 am. Due to this “joint responsibility”, the judge reduces the compensation by 30%, the amount of which has not been made public. 40% of that is paid to the heirs of the now-deceased builder, while 15% is contributed by each of the two ministries involved, Interior and Infrastructure and Transport.
The families of the victims of the L’Aquila earthquake have taken this court ruling as an insult, which comes after 14 years of legal battle to recognize responsibilities associated with that disaster. “It’s stupid. I discover that in L’Aquila they were all suicide hopefuls. It is an infinite shame to blame the victims,” said Maria Grazia Piccinini, lawyer and mother of Ilaria Rambaldi, one of the students who lost life in the collapsed building the sentence is about.
“A fantastic reconstruction has been made. It was 3:32 pm and where would my daughter be if she wasn’t sleeping? In L’Aquila, everyone returned home after the initial shocks. There was no alarm and no refuge,” he recalled in statements to the Adnkronos Piccinini agency, which assured that he will appeal the verdict.
The failure of authorities to warn of the risk posed despite the continued tremors of the previous days sparked an earlier trial that also enraged survivors and the families of the victims. Five days before the earthquake, members of the so-called Great Risk Commission met in L’Aquila to analyze the seismic situation, after which they sent a message of calm. The seven members were sentenced to six years in prison for that mistake in the first degree, although on appeal all were acquitted except one, who was sentenced to two years in prison.
Source: La Verdad
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