The Civil Court of L'Aquila has sentenced the Presidency of the Council of Ministers to compensate 6 million euros to 20 plaintiffs for the reassurances proposed by the former number two of the National Department of Civil Protection, Bernardo De Bernardinis already convicted with a final sentence to 2 years' imprisonment;
this is the second sentence against the Government after that of last December when 8 million were to be compensated to 30 civil parties.
Rai's Abruzzo Tgr reported it.
The legal initiative concerns the results of the work of the Major Risks Commission meeting in L'Aquila on 31 March 2009, five days after the tragic shock, which had reassured the population who had been grappling with an earthquake swarm for several months.
Today's sentence is the second relating to the legal battle carried out by the lawyers Maria Teresa di Rocco and Silvia Catalucci of the L'Aquila Court, who in 2010 had decided to take civil action instead of criminal action, against the Presidency of the Council of Ministers because the Major Risks Commission is its advisory body.
The compensation of the injured parties - the victims' families - was not divided equally, but on the basis of the damages suffered.
Those reassuring phrases had been made a week before the catastrophic event of the earthquake in L'Aquila on April 6, 2009 (309 dead, thousands injured and tens of thousands displaced) by the former number two of the Civil Protection Department, who according to the same Court it influenced the habits of the same population who stayed at home instead of finding shelter outside.
In the ruling, Judge Baldovino De Sensi deems proof of the causal link between De Bernardinis' statements and the death or injury of the person who brought the suit to be proved.
