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The man accused of sending a group of scientists to the central Italian city of L'Aquila in 2009 to falsely reassure citizens that no major earthquake was about to strike has been cleared of manslaughter charges. Guido Bertolaso, who at the time was head of Italy's Civil Protection department, was acquitted by Judge Giuseppe Grieco on Friday on the grounds of "not having committed the crime." The verdict brings to an end 7 years of legal actions initiated by relatives of some of the 309 victims of the deadly earthquake that struck L'Aquila on 6 April 2009.

The trial of Bertolaso follows that of the scientists themselves—three seismologists, a volcanologist, two seismic engineers, and Bertolaso's deputy, Bernardo De Bernardinis—who all took part in a meeting of an official advisory committee held 6 days before the earthquake. The experts were prosecuted on manslaughter charges for having allegedly underestimated the risk posed by an ongoing series of small- and medium-sized tremors in and around L'Aquila, and of having given advice at the time of their meeting that led many people to stay indoors on the night of the deadly quake itself—and perish as a result.

That hugely controversial trial resulted in convictions and 6-year jail sentences for all seven scientists, but six of those convictions were overturned on appeal and then definitively quashed by Italy's supreme court last November. Only De Bernardinis had his conviction confirmed, albeit with a lesser 2-year sentence, which will remain suspended.