Inger Stojberg, Denmark’s former immigration minister, was found guilty Monday of illegally separating couples seeking asylum in the country and handed a two-month sentence.

       She was accused of violating the European Convention on Human Rights by ordering law enforcement officials to separate couples, some with children. She pleaded not guilty and was tried before an impeachment court, in the country’s first such trial in 26 years.

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       She is unlikely to spend time behind bars, as those sentenced to serve fewer than six months in Denmark are often eligible to serve their sentences under electronic monitoring.

       Denmark faces criticism after pushing to send refugees back to Syria

       Known for her hard-liner positions on migration — she posted a photo on Facebook in 2017 celebrating with a cake after the passage of the 50th regulation restricting immigration during her tenure — Stojberg was immigration minister from 2015 to 2019 under a government formed by a center-right bloc.

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       Twenty-three couples, most of them fleeing from Syria and Iraq, were separated in 2016 without individual consideration of their case, according to Al Jazeera, under an order that Stojberg issued.

       The instruction from the ministry to separate couples in which at least one person was underage came after Danish media outlets ran prominent coverage about “child-brides” at asylum centers. In declarations to the Danish Broadcasting Corporation in 2016, Stojberg said the couples “had to be separated” because she could not accept “examples of coercion” in the system, the New York Times reported.

       One of the couples who had been separated, a 26-year-old man and a 17-year-old woman who was pregnant at the time, both from Syria, filed a complaint with the Danish parliamentary ombudsman, who ruled the minister’s measure was illegal, according to the New York Times.

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       Stojberg told reporters that she was “very surprised” by the court ruling and that she was only trying to fight against child marriage. “It’s not only me who has lost,” she said, according to Spanish broadcaster RTVE. “Danish values have also lost.”

       “The minister claims she wanted to protect the girls, but she was never interested in their opinion," said Michala Clante Bendixen, chair of Refugees Welcome, Denmark. "She did so much damage to the Danish asylum and integration system during her time, this is a minor one but important because it was so obviously illegal,” she added.

       Denmark is not the only country to separate families amid the pursuit of harsh immigration policies. In the United States under President Donald Trump, hundreds of migrants were separated at the border, a practice that came under intense scrutiny and criticism.

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       Angela Merkel welcomed refugees to Germany. They’re starting to help the economy.