Katharina Henot - Germany's most notorious "witch" - stood accused of having entered into a pact with the devil, conjured up a plague of caterpillars, sown strife and encouraged sexual deviancy. In 1627 she was sentenced to death by torture by the Cologne Court. 385 years later, in a symbolic gesture by the Cologne City Council, Henot and 37 other "witches" executed by local authorities are to be pardoned and rehabilitated, wrote Die Welt newspaper on Saturday.
Councillors voted unanimously to pardon the former Cologne inhabitants in a vote on Thursday, rejecting "any violation of human dignity and human rights," wrote the paper. The move was not a judicial act - authorities in modern day Germany do not have the power to overturn rulings made under the Holy Roman Empire. Instead, the move was intended to highlight how easily a person can be defamed to the point of no longer being seen as human, but a demon that deserves to die a horrible death.
http://www.thelocal.de/national/20120630-43473.html
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