The former Danish Minister for Integration was sentenced today to two months in prison by a special court, which found her guilty of illegally separating couples of asylum seekers when the woman was a minor.
“Inger Steiberg was found guilty of intentionally violating (…) the law on the responsibility of ministers. The sentence is 60 days in prison without the right of appeal,” the court said.
Accused of violating the European Convention on Human Rights by ordering the separation of couples of asylum seekers, some of whom had children, when the woman was under 18, Stoiberg pleaded not guilty to the special trial, which has been under way since September.
In 2016, 23 couples, most of whom were of minor age difference, were separated, without individual examination of their file, based on the ministry’s recommendations. They were then taken to different centers pending the examination of their file.
Her decision “was illegal because the Ministry of Immigration was not obliged to proceed with an arrangement (…) in which no separate care was shown for these persons”, said the president of the court, Thomas Rordam, announcing the verdict presence of Stoiberg.
The right-wing politician, who belongs to the Liberal Party, had repeatedly denied the allegations, saying her actions were aimed at uprooting child marriages and protecting underage girls.
The case began when a couple from Syria protested to the ombudsman in the country in 2016 because the man and woman had been placed in different asylum centers. A commission investigating the case concluded last year that the order was “clearly illegal”.
Twenty-five of the 26 judges agreed to sentence Stoiberg.
Parliament is now expected to rule on the possible deprivation of her parliamentary capacity, which is independent of her sentence.
Minister of Immigration from 2015 to 2019 in a center-right government backed by the populist anti-immigrant right of the Danish People’s Party (DF), Stoiberg was responsible for Denmark’s very restrictive host policy. He boasted that he had adopted more than 110 amendments restricting the rights of foreigners.
During her tenure, she also took a measure to seize existing migrants in order to finance their stay in Denmark.
This is only the third time since 1910 that a political official has been brought before the 26 judges of a special court in Denmark who try ministers for abuse of power or negligence in the performance of their duties.
The last one was in 1993 with “Tamulgate”, the illegal freezing of the Tamil refugee family that was decided in 1987 and 1988 by the conservative former Minister of Justice Eric Nin-Hansen. The latter had been sentenced to four months suspended imprisonment.
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