Inger Stoejberg: Jail for Danish ex-minister for asylum separations

[Saithan]

Inger Stoejberg: Jail for Danish ex-minister for asylum separations

Inger Stoejberg faces 60 days in prison for separating young asylum-seeking couples in 2016.

www.bbc.com

A former Danish immigration minister has been found guilty of illegally separating young asylum-seeking couples in a landmark impeachment trial.
Judges ruled Inger Stoejberg's decision in 2016 to separate couples was unlawful and jailed her for 60 days.
Ms Stoejberg said she was surprised by the verdict and said the policy was designed to combat child marriage.
The case was Denmark's first impeachment trial in three decades and only the sixth in its history.
"It's not just me who has lost but Danish values have lost too," she told reporters outside the court, adding that she would accept her punishment.

Between 2015 to 2019, Inger Stoejberg served as Denmark's immigration minister in a centre-right government propped up by the right-wing populist Danish People's Party.

During her tenure she 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 with their spouse.
Ms Stoejberg ordered the separation of 23 married couples before the policy was dropped a few months later.
Among them were a young Syrian couple, Rimaz Alkayal, then 17 and her spouse Alnour Alwan, 26, who were reunited following a complaint. They had been forced to live apart for four months, even though she was pregnant.
The Supreme Court's verdict on Monday leaves Ms Stoejberg's political career hanging by a thread.
The verdict cannot be appealed and the jail sentence is unconditional, meaning that it must be served.
Ms Stoejberg resigned as deputy leader of the conservative-liberal Venstre in February this year after its MPs voted to impeach her.

She is currently an independent MP, but could lose her seat in a vote to remove her from parliament.



This is justice!

Everything was pretty obvious. But they did their best to muddy the waters and try to create doubts and such. But She violated International Laws and tried to put blame on the beaucracy.

Read and know that justice exists! We just need to get the other countries to be better!

A former Danish immigration minister has been found guilty of illegally separating young asylum-seeking couples in a landmark impeachment trial.
Judges ruled Inger Stoejberg's decision in 2016 to separate couples was unlawful and jailed her for 60 days.
Ms Stoejberg said she was surprised by the verdict and said the policy was designed to combat child marriage.
The case was Denmark's first impeachment trial in three decades and only the sixth in its history.
"It's not just me who has lost but Danish values have lost too," she told reporters outside the court, adding that she would accept her punishment.
Between 2015 to 2019, Inger Stoejberg served as Denmark's immigration minister in a centre-right government propped up by the right-wing populist Danish People's Party.

 

[Saithan]

Thi is known for right.

Inger Støjberg has just been convicted in only the sixth national court case in Danish history. She has been given an unconditional prison sentence of 60 days.

Supreme Court President Thomas Rørdam explains that the majority of the judges in the Supreme Court have found that a press release from 10 February 2016 is the decisive factor for the verdict. It was this press release which contained the illegal instruction that all asylum couples should be separated without exception.

"The majority finds it proven that the change in practice that Inger Støjberg decided to be administered after is the one that appears in the press release," he says.

A majority of the judges also deny the note that Inger Støjberg and her defenders have used as a defense. Along the way, Inger Støjberg has thus argued that she has approved a note the day before, which contains exceptions. But that argument overrides the Supreme Court.

"The majority finds it proven that the memorandum's scheme was abandoned," says Thomas Rørdam.

"Clear and correct judgment"​

It is 25 out of 26 judges who have assessed that Inger Støjberg is guilty of a violation of the Ministerial Accountability Act. A majority of 15 judges found that Inger Støjberg should be sentenced to unconditional imprisonment.

The President of the Supreme Court - President of the Supreme Court Thomas Rørdam - said this on Monday at 13 announced in the Supreme Court's premises in Eigtved's Warehouse in Christianshavn in the presence of Inger Støjberg herself.

Prosecutor Jon Lauritzen says that this is a "clear and correct verdict":

»What is crucial for us is that the court has come to the conclusion that Inger Støjberg is guilty and that it is intentional. Whether it is two or four months is not so crucial for us. "


Inger Støjberg, who is now facing 60 days in prison, is not surprisingly dissatisfied with the sentence. She has previously pointed out that her purpose with the controversial instruction was to help the girls, whom she has termed 'child brides':

‘I am very, very surprised. It is the Danish values that have lost today. It is not just me who has lost, but the Danish values, "she says.

Supreme Court President Thomas Rørdam is chairman of the Supreme Court's no less than 26 judges.
Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen.

Historical point​

In any case, in the case of Inger Støjberg, a historic sentence has been set for the case, which began almost six years ago and has previously been investigated by both the Parliamentary Ombudsman and the Instruction Commission, in the media and by the Folketing, and which has now culminated in the trial against the former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Integration.

Here, Inger Støjberg has been charged with violating the Ministerial Accountability Act in the case of the separation of asylum couples, where one party was under 18 years of age.

Specifically, as Minister, he is responsible for the Danish Immigration Service initiating and for up to ten months thereafter maintaining an administration where the asylum couples were forcibly separated in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights and Danish administrative law.

Prosecutors Anne Birgitte Gammeljord and Jon Lauritzen claimed an unconditional prison sentence for Inger Støjberg of at least four months, while the former minister's defenders - Nicolai Mallet and René Offersen - conversely advocated for a pure acquittal of their client.

139 members of parliament voted in favor​

It was the Folketing that, as the prosecution in February, chose to prosecute Inger Støjberg .

139 members of parliament voted for - and 30 against - putting the Supreme Court in office for the first time in 26 years and since the Tamil case against former Minister of Justice Erik Ninn-Hansen (K).

This happened in continuation of the fact that the Instruction Commission had submitted its partial report on the case a month and a half earlier.

All parties in the Folketing except the Danish People's Party and Nye Borgerlige voted in favor of the Supreme Court case, including Inger Støjberg's then party, the Liberal Party.

In addition to Inger Støjberg herself, eight other ordinary members of the Liberal Party's parliamentary group and former prime minister and non-attached member Lars Løkke Rasmussen voted against the federal court case.

The decision in the Supreme Court case has been awaited with great excitement at Christiansborg - not least in light of the vacant chairmanship of the Danish People's Party, where several members have strongly wished that Inger Støjberg should join the party.

Inger Støjberg dømt skyldig i Rigsretten: Skal i fængsel i 60 dage

Læs mere her.

www.berlingske.dk

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25 judges out of 26 said she was guilty!