A court in Denmark has found the Nordic country’s ex- Minister for Immigration and Integration guilty of issuing an illegal order to separate underage spouses among asylum seekers, British public broadcaster BBC reports.
The Danish Supreme Court ruled on Monday, December 13, that Inger Støjberg’s decision in 2016 to separate couples was unlawful and jailed her for 60 days.
During her tenure from 2015 to 2019 the politician took a hard line on immigration and introduced dozens of restrictions. Among them was an order in February 2016 that married refugees under 18 years old should not be accommodated in the Nordic Country together with their spouse.
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The current independent member of Denmark’s Folketing has denied any wrongdoing and explained the policy was designed to combat child marriage. This case was Denmark’s first impeachment trial since the 1990s and only its second in a century. Following the court’s ruling, Støjberg’s twenty-year political career is left hanging by a thread. The politician could lose her seat in a vote to remove her from parliament, BBC reports.
Denmark’s former immigration minister sentenced to prison over illegal decision
