Italian Scientists Jailed For Wrongly Predicting Earthquake Activity

(Newsroom America) -- Lawyers acting for six Italian scientists and an ex-government official jailed over the deadly 2009 earthquake in L'Aquila say they will appeal against the sentence.

The seven were accused of having provided the wrong information about the danger of a big earthquake following a number of smaller tremors felt ahead of the April 2009 quake.

The 6.3 magnitude quake killed 309 people and caused widespread damage.

The men were today sentenced to six years in prison after a regional court found them guilty of multiple manslaughter.

Prosecutors said a falsely reassuring statement before the quake that there would not be a big one caused many people to stay in harms way.

The defense maintained major earthquakes are not able to be predicted.