Nicola Sturgeon issues historic apology to 4000 people accused of being witches
dailyrecord.co.ukNicola Sturgeon has used International Women’s Day to issue an apology to the 4000 people who were accused of witchcraft centuries ago.The First Minister said the convictions and executions, mostly of women, had been an injustice on a “colossal scale”.Campaigners have called for a pardon and a public apology over witch-hunts that took place between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.Addressing MSPs, Sturgeon said: “Before this parliament right now is a petition demanding a pardon for the more than 4000 people in Scotland, the vast majority of them women, accused and in many cases convicted and executed for being witches under the witchcraft act of 1563.“Those who met this fate were not witches, they were people, and they were overwhelmingly women.
At a time when women were not even allowed to speak as witnesses in a courtroom they were accused and killed because they were poor, different, vulnerable, or in many cases just because they were women.”She added: “It was injustice on a colossal scale, driven at least in part by misogyny in its most literal sense: hatred of women.
The pardon the petition calls for would require this parliament to legislate and in future this Parliament may choose to do so.“But in the meantime, the petition also calls for an apology.
After all, these accusations and executions were instigated and perpetrated by the state."And so today on International Women's Day as First Minister on behalf of the Scottish Government, I am choosing to acknowledge that egregious historic injustice and extend a formal posthumous apology to all those accused, convicted, vilified or executed under the witchcraft act 1563.”She added: "Acknowledging injustice, no matter how historic, is important.
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