Danish parliament launches impeachment trial for ex-minister

Copenhagen: Denmark’s parliament on Tuesday referred a former minister to a rarely used special court over accusations that she broke the law when ordering the separation of asylum-seeking couples while in office.

The accusations against Inger Stojberg relate to a decision she made in 2016 as the Minister for Immigration. Stojberg ordered immigration authorities to separate married couples if one of them was under the age of 18 in order to combat child marriages.

But according to the preliminary indictment passed in parliament on Tuesday, the decision constituted a "violation of the European Convention on Human Rights". This is only the third time since 1910 that a Danish politician has had to go before the country’s Court of Impeachment, which tries minister for malfeasance or negligence in the performance of their duties.

The last case was in 1993, dubbed "Tamilgate", and was over the illegal freezing of family reunification for Tamil refugees. The decisions in 1987 and 1988 by former Justice Minister Erik Ninn-Hansen landed him a four-month suspended prison sentence.