An Italian court has granted €1 million in damages to the family of a Czech student who tragically died during the 2009 earthquake in L’Aquila, as reported by Sky News on Sunday. The court found the authorities responsible for failing to evacuate a dormitory building after the initial tremors, which resulted in the collapse of the dormitories and the loss of lives, including the Czech student and an Italian student.
The earthquake in L’Aquila took lives of over 300 people, including two students from the Pardubice region who were in Italy for a two-week study program funded by European funds as part of the Leonardo da Vinci project.
The court ordered the Italian Ministry of Education to pay the compensation. The family of the 17-year-old Czech student received €1 million for the tragedy caused.
In 2020, after a criminal court found the authorities and their officials complicit in the students’ deaths, the Czech student’s family filed a compensation request. The court held the authorities responsible for various reasons, including the poor condition of the building and allowing the students to return to it after the initial strong tremors in late March. In 2015, the head of the dormitory was sentenced to four years in prison for preventing the evacuation of the building. However, in 2017, Italian President Sergio Mattarella pardoned him, commuting the remainder of his sentence.
In 2021, the court also awarded €190,000 in compensation to the parents of an Italian student who died in the dormitory collapse. It is unclear whether the parents of the Czech student pursued compensation through the court as well.
