Denmark’s former immigration minister, Inger Stojberg, was found guilty of illegally separating couples seeking asylum in the country and sentenced to 60 days in prison.
“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 pleaded not guilty and was tried before an impeachment court. It was the first trial of this kind to take place in the country for 26 years.
In 2016, nearly two dozen couples were separated without individual examinations of their case, following instructions from the minister. The couples were placed in different centers while their cases were being examined. The court found her decisions to be “unlawful” because the arrangement was made without exceptions and the immigration service did not consider individual cases.
Most of the couples were feeling from Syria and Iraq.
Those sentenced to serve fewer than six months in Denmark are often eligible to serve their sentences under electronic monitoring. Stojberg may never see the inside of a prison. However, she could face disqualification from being a member of parliament.
One of the couples who had been separated was a 26-year-old man and a 17-year-old woman who was pregnant at the time. The former immigration minister says she was trying to protect the girls.
Her claims of innocence have been disregarded.
“The minister claims she wanted to protect the girls, but she was never interested in their opinion,” said Michala Clante Bendixen, chair of Refugees Welcome, Denmark, per The New York Times. “She did so much damage to the Danish asylum and integration system during her time, this is a minor one but important because it was so obviously illegal.”
