A free speech case concerning a Finnish parliamentarian who publicly shared her Christian views on marriage will be heard by the country’s Supreme Court in October, dragging the case into its seventh year of litigation.
According to a news release from Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International, the legal nonprofit representing Member of Parliament Päivi Räsänen, the court will hear the Christian politician’s case Oct. 30 even though two lower courts have already acquitted her of “hate speech” charges. Räsänen, a devout Lutheran, formerly served as Finland’s interior minister and has been a parliamentarian since 1995.
Zeale previously reported that Finnish prosecutors filed a complaint against Räsänen after she made a post on Twitter (now X) in 2019 in which she questioned the Evangelical Lutheran Church’s decision to sponsor an LGBT event. Prosecutors called the post “agitation against a minority group.”
Police discovered that Räsänen had authored a pamphlet for her church called “As Man and Woman He Created Them.” Prosecutors also charged Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola, who published the pamphlet in 2004. Both he and Räsänen were acquitted twice, but prosecutors appealed the case to the Supreme Court.
In the release, Räsänen stated that her actions — tweeting a Bible verse and engaging “in public discourse from a Christian perspective” — were not crimes.
“The attempts to criminalize me for expressing my beliefs have resulted in an immensely trying last few years, but I still hope for a positive result that will stand as a key precedent to protect the human right to free speech in Finland,” she added.
Paul Coleman, ADF International executive director, called the prosecutors’ actions against Räsänen “shocking.”
“As we have warned for years, vaguely worded ‘hate speech’ laws allow ideological prosecutions like this to take place,” he stated in the release. “We stand behind Päivi and we will continue to work toward the bigger victory when such ludicrous cases are no longer brought. In a free and democratic society, all should be allowed to share their beliefs without fear of punishment.”