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An Italian court has convicted seven scientists and experts of failing to adequately warn citizens before an earthquake struck central Italy in 2009, killing more than 300 people.
The court in L'Aquila Monday evening handed down six-year-prison sentences to the defendants, members of a national "Great Risks Commission."
In Italy, convictions aren't definitive until after an appeals trial, so it is unlikely any of the defendants would face jail immediately.



TIMELINE
April 6, 2009: Powerful quake strikes L'Aquila, Italy, killing more than 300 people.
May 27, 2011: Scientists charged with manslaughter for failing to predict the natural disaster.
Sept. 20, 2011: Trial begins as prosecutors call for "justice."
Oct. 22, 2012: 7 scientists convicted of manslaughter.
Among those convicted were some of Italy's most prominent and internationally respected seismologists and geological experts, including Enzo Boschi, former head of the national Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology.
"I am dejected, desperate," Boschi said after the verdict. "I thought I would have been acquitted. I still don't understand what I was convicted of."
"I consider myself innocent before God and men," said another convicted defendant, Bernardo De Bernardinis, a former official of the national Civil Protection agency.
According to a blog post on Science magazine's website, the five other defendants are: Franco Barberi, a volcanologist at the University of Rome (Roma Tre) and the commission's then-vice-president; Gian Michele Calvi, a seismic engineer at the University of Pavia; Mauro Dolce, a seismic engineer and director of seismic risk at Italy's Civil Protection Department (DPC); Claudio Eva, a seismologist at the University of Genova; and Giulio Selvaggi, a seismologist at INGV.
Scientists worldwide have decried the trial as ridiculous, contending that science has no way to predict quakes. In 2011, a shocked spokesman for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) likened the accusations to a witch hunt.
"It has a medieval flavor to it -- like witches are being put on trial," the stunned spokesman told FoxNews.com at the time.
'I thought I would have been acquitted. I still don't understand what I was convicted of.'
- Enzo Boschi, former head of the national Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology
The trial began in September 2011 in this Apennine town, whose devastated historic center is still largely a ghost town.
The defendants were accused in the indictment of giving "inexact, incomplete and contradictory information" about whether small tremors felt by L'Aquila residents in the weeks and months before the April 6, 2009, quake should have constituted grounds for a quake warning.


Read more: Italian court convicts 7 scientists for failing to predict earthquake | Fox News