Here is a story with a good background on the events. It's more complex than you would guess:

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100622/full/465992a.html

In particular, at least one member of the civil defense bureaucracy went out of his way to say there was a consensus that there was no danger (even though there was not such a strong consensus):

"Immediately after that meeting, De Bernardinis and Barberi, acting president of the committee, held a press conference in L'Aquila, where De Bernardinis told reporters that "the scientific community tells us there is no danger, because there is an ongoing discharge of energy. The situation looks favorable". No other members of the committee were at the press conference."

There should be consequences for such grave misrepresentations. I was surprised to see that the whole committee is being punished, though, and not just the official who misrepresented the state of knowledge.

Maybe, as some other commenters have noted, this is part of a ritual of condemnation at the first judicial level and absolution upon appeal to the second or third level.