Blast: former Danish Migration Minister has to be arrested - because of the "child brides decree"
Created: 12/13/2021, 10:10 PM
From: Florian Naumann, Jonas Raab
From 2015 to 2019 Inger Stojberg was responsible for immigration policy in Denmark.
Now she has been sentenced for an instruction from then.
© Ritzau Scanpix / imago
Denmark's former Minister for Immigration and Integration must be detained.
An imperial court attested her breach of law with her child brides decree.
Copenhagen - Denmark's former immigration minister, Inger Støjberg, said she was “very, very surprised”: The 48-year-old was sentenced to 60 days in prison on Monday (13 December) for decisions in her previous office. It is a historical judgment, only the sixth of its kind - because it was made at the so-called Reichsgericht, which deals with the misconduct of ministers.
As Minister for Immigration and Integration from 2015 to 2019, Støjberg was largely responsible for Denmark's restrictive admission policy.
On the instructions of the conservatives, 23 couples, mostly with only a small age difference, were separated from each other in 2016 without an individual assessment.
They were placed in various centers while offices were reviewing their cases.
Støjberg was therefore accused of violating the European Convention on Human Rights, which is monitored by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Danish ex-Foreign Minister Stojberg convicted of separating refugees
A total of 25 of the 26 judges of the special court found Støjberg guilty of having acted willfully in at least one of the cases - in the case of an asylum-seeking couple from Syria. The procedure had been running since September. The public prosecutor's office had demanded four months' imprisonment and the former minister pleaded “innocent”. Støjberg described the roughly two-month prison sentence, for which a clear majority of the Imperial Court specially appointed for this trial, was a “defeat for Danish values, not just for me”. She can no longer appeal the judgment.
Michael Gøtze, administrative law expert at the University of Copenhagen, spoke in the newspaper
Politiken,
however, of a "very red card" for Støjberg and their approach.
Jens Elo Rytter, law professor at the capital's university, pointed out that the verdict was surprisingly unanimous - in view of the fact that some of the judges' posts were filled by politics, this was not to be expected, he told the public broadcaster DR. As a result is a particularly "strong" judgment.
Støjberg's ministry announced in February 2016 that all asylum couples would be housed separately without exception if one of the partners was a minor.
According to the court, this was an illegal instruction.
23 couples were affected, including apparently pregnant women at the time.
Immigration Minister Stojberg sentenced to 60 days in prison - a historic verdict
A majority in the Danish parliament, the Folketing, voted in early February to bring Støjberg to the special court for offenses.
This drastic decision has only been made twice in Denmark in the past 100 years.
However, it is considered unlikely that Støjberg will have to go to prison: under Danish law, electronic surveillance is sufficient for prison sentences of less than six months.
Parliament now has to decide whether the now non-partisan MP will lose her mandate.
After her indictment last winter, the 48-year-old had already left the conservative-liberal Venstre party.
Her most ardent supporters can now be found in the far-right camp: Hans Kristian Skibby, MP for the right-wing populist Danske Folkeparti, spoke on Twitter on Monday of an “embarrassing” and “political” verdict.
However, Støjberg will not have a political future as a front woman with the right wing either: According to
party
circles
, the
Ekstrabladet
newspaper learned that
such
plans were “game over”
.
(jo / dpa / AFP / fn)