A former immigration minister was sentenced to two months in prison after a Danish court of impeachment found her guilty of illegally ordering the separation of married underage couples seeking asylum in Denmark. Inger Stojberg was convicted of “a deliberate violation” of the European convention on human rights after her policies led to the splitting up, in 2016, of 23 couples in which at least one partner was under 18. “But that’s where we are, and I will serve my punishment, and I do that with my head held high, and then we will move on,” she told reporters. Hers was the first impeachment trial in the country in 26 years.

Stojberg was an official whose controversial tenure from 2015 to 2019 saw her tighten many of Denmark’s restrictive migration policies. She once crowed that she had passed more than 110 amendments limiting the rights of foreigners. Upon the passage of the government’s 50th restriction against immigration in 2017, Stojberg was photographed smiling with a celebratory cake. She is also known for taking out advertisements in Lebanese media warning off potential migrants from coming to Denmark and falsely claiming that a Danish day care had banned pork in deference to Muslims. Her justification for separating the refugee couples, many of whom were only a few years apart in age, was a professed concern for “child brides” and “examples of coercion.”