Danish former immigration minister faces a two-month prison sentence for separating asylum-seeking couples.
A Danish special court has found her guilty of illegally separating several couples of asylum seekers. Most of whom had a small age difference.
“Inger Stojberg has violated the Ministerial Responsibility Act,” Denmark’s Court of Impeachment of the Realm said.
Stojberg has violated the European Convention on Human Rights by ordering the separation of asylum-seeking couples, some of whom had children, when the female member was under the age of 18.
The former minister had pleaded not guilty in the exceptional trial that began in September.
In 2016, 23 couples were separated without individual examination of their case, following instructions from the minister.
They were then placed in different centres while their cases were being examined.
Her decision was found to be “unlawful” because the arrangement was made without exceptions and the immigration service did not consider individual cases.
Parliament must now decide whether to disqualify Stojberg from being a member of parliament.
This is only the third time since 1910 that a politician has been referred to the 26-judge special court in Denmark. It is designed to try ministers for malpractice or negligence while in office.