Two Turkish mothers who were seperated from their young sons and imprisoned for using false documents have been freed from jail and given suspended sentences by an appeals court.

Judge Aaron Bugeja ordered Rabia Yavuz, 27, and Muzekka Deneri, 29 to be given six months in prison suspended for two years after a national outcry that saw everyone from former Prime Minister Alfred Sant to Vice President of the European Commission Roberta Metsola question the logic of imprisoning the mothers who were fleeing persecution in their homeland.

Judge Bugeja said that using false documents to enter Malta was a serious crime, and that the crime had become more and more common over the last few years.

“Malta is being used as a transitory location principally to bring people from countries out of the European Union into the European Union,” he said.

Though they had said they were fleeing persecution from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s regime, Bugeja said he saw no evidence of this. However, they had admitted to their crime, and he said the justice system wanted to find an alternative punishment for the mothers so as not to cause any further damage to the children.

However, he said not all cases would be so deserving of this change in sentence.