Italian Scientists in court

[principled]

Apologies for this late post, but I've only just read about this earthquake case.
For those who don't know what I'm talking about:
wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=3941

1) The first issue is, should scientists be held to account for their advice/actions/judgements and to what degree?

2) If information that contradicts their stance is ignored,should this have a bearing on (1)?
(See: latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/04/a-little-over-a-week-ago-a-scientist-little-known-in-earthquake-circles-made-a-bold-prediction-of-a-destructive-earthquake-a.html )

I don't want to limit the discussion to this particular case, which I've posted purely as an example. I suppose what I'm asking is:
"Where a policy is implemented based on scientific advice, should those that provided that advice be held responsible for it? The obvious answer may be yes, but the wholesale application of this could result in scientists not advising on anything, which would also be disastrous."
It seems to me that there is a difficult line to be drawn here.

Comments, anyone?
P

[rsmith7]

A recent "event" in the same vein:
The authorities here in Orkney have been upset by a dive boat gathering razor shells (spoots) using electrical current to stimulate them to emerge from the sea bed. Rather than attack the offending divers using legal means (I don't think they have any), they instituted a DSP toxin ban.
This is where sampling takes place of shellfish to assertain if they contain toxic substances.
All shellfish contain these naturally occurring "toxins" although at such low levels, one would need to eat 50kg of flesh to have any symptoms.
The "action level" from memory is 80mU per mg. If the whole animal is tested - guts, muscle, vicera, arse...everything, then DSP can be found above the action level very easily.

This is what happened.
A young researcher was flown up to the offending area, scraped a few mussels of the side of the pier and flew back to their lab.
The lab found what the political masters wanted and put a guy out of business.

Nasty.