Former Denmark minister sentenced to prison for separating asylum-seeking couples
Denmark's former immigration minister Inger Stojberg was given a 60-day prison sentence for her role in separating asylum-seeking couples where one of the partners was under 18 years of age.
"Inger Stojberg is found guilty of a deliberate violation of the Ministerial Responsibility Act," Denmark's Court of Impeachment of the Realm said in a statement.
Stojberg's actions were found to be "unlawful" because there were no exceptions and individual cases were not considered. Under Danish law, asylum-seeking couples need to be evaluated individually.
She was accused of violating the European Convention on Human Rights.
Stojberg, who is supported by the right-wing Danish People's Party (DF), served as immigration minister from 2015 to 2019. Denmark once had liberal immigration policies, but Stojberg spearheaded the tightening of these laws.
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Under Stojberg's hard-line approach to immigration, she implemented new restrictions such as a February 2016 order that married refugees under the age of 18 must not be accommodated with their spouses.
As a result, Stojberg ordered the separation of 23 married couples in 2016. These individuals, some with children, were placed in separate centres while their cases were being examined. However, a few months later this new policy was dropped.
In 2015, the country took in 21,000 refugees who had reached its borders. Now there are new laws that aim to have zero asylum seekers.
Stojberg's trial began in September and was Denmark's first impeachment trial in three decades. It was the third time since 1910 that a politician was referred to the nation's 26-judge special court.
Following the verdict, she took to Facebook and wrote: "Today the Danish values lost! We now have a situation where as a man you can come to Denmark with your child bride. Several of them have been made pregnant at the age of 12-13 years. Apparently you can do that unpunished. But I get punished for trying to protect the girls. There is honestly something completely wrong!
"But I respect the verdict and take my punishment without bending my neck. My life goes on and on. It is in staggering contrast to the girls who experience getting married as child brides to older men.
"I don't want to hide that I'm surprised by the judgement. But I have always known that fighting for Danish values is not free. And that we only fail if we stop fighting for what we believe in."
The Danish Parliament will now decide whether to disqualify the ex-minister from being a member of the parliament.
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