Finnish politician Päivi Räsänen, who has already been tried and unanimously acquitted by two courts for publicly expressing her Christian beliefs has had her free speech case appealed to the country’s Supreme Court, with the prosecution continuing to call for tens of thousands in fines and her published work to be censored.
Ms Räsänen is a Member of the Finnish Parliament, Chair of the Christian Democrats in the Parliament of Finland, and a former Interior Minister (2011-2015) – she’s also written about her near five year legal ordeal for the Critic here.
The ‘hate speech’ case against Ms Räsänen began back in June 2019 after she posted a photo of Romans 1:24–27 from the New Testament that described same-sex relationships as “shameful”. In the attached X post, she criticised the Lutheran Church’s decision to become an official partner of Helsinki Pride 2019: “How can the church’s doctrinal foundation, the Bible, be compatible with the lifting up of shame and sin as a subject of pride?”
It was enough to trigger a police investigation, and 13 hours of interrogation. (Police interrogated Ms Räsänen on her theology to such an extent that she reportedly joked with her friends that these interviews had become her weekly Bible studies).
Despite police misgivings about the prosecutability of the case, the General Prosecutor of Finland, Raija Roiviainen, subsequently brought the politician to court over three criminal charges, filed ridiculously – but tellingly – under the “war crimes and crimes against humanity” section of the Finnish Criminal Code.
The further two charges related to a short sound bite pulled from a live one-hour radio debate given in 2019, and to a pamphlet she wrote for her Church in 2004, titled Male and Female He Created Them.
During her first trial, the Finnish prosecution attempted to suggest that when Christians cite from the Bible to describe certain actions as ‘sinful’ their words have the effect of targeting the very identity of the person(s) committing that action.
The intent behind an expression of faith is therefore irrelevant, because its effect once uttered is to psychologically ‘trigger’ certain groups. To say, as Ms Räsänen had said on various occasions, that sex outside of marriage is ‘sinful’ according to the Bible, is to violate the dignity of the ‘sinner’, and thus to commit prosecutable ‘hate speech’. The point, as the General Prosecutor put it during the trial, is not whether the Bible is true or not, “but that it is insulting”.
Writing for the Critic, Lois McClatchie points out that the General Prosecutor’s “disgust” for Ms Räsänen Christian faith was clear throughout. At one point, the Bible was even likened to Mein Kampf.
In March 2022, however, the judges of the District Court of Helsinki in Finland unanimously dismissed all charges.
At the time, Ms Räsänen described herself as grateful for having had the chance to stand up for freedom of speech, which she described as an essential right in a democratic country, and appreciative of the fact that the Court recognised in its ruling the importance of free speech.
Sadly, her relief was short-lived, as the General Prosecutor immediately appealed the ruling, and she was dragged back to court in August 2023.
Three months later, in a unanimous ruling that upheld the District Court’s March 2022 unanimous acquittal, the Helsinki Court of Appeal dismissed the arguments of the prosecution.
Specifically, it found that it “has no reason, on the basis of the evidence received at the main hearing, to assess the case in any respect differently from the District Court”.
That was a significant ruling, because the District Court’s judgement recognised that while some may object to Räsänen’s statements, “there must be an overriding social reason for interfering with and restricting freedom of expression”.
Having concluded that there was no such justification, the District Court then struck an important blow for religious freedom, stating: “It is not for the District Court to interpret biblical concepts”.
Importantly, the Appeal Court also slapped down the prosecution’s continued attempts to argue that the intent behind the expression of faith is irrelevant, and that all that matters is the effect of the expression on certain vulnerable groups. In its appeal judgment the Court held that the offence “is punishable only if committed intentionally”.
For good measure, the Court also ordered the prosecution to pay tens of thousands in legal fees to cover costs incurred by the defendants.
Ms Räsänen has previously said she is “prepared to defend freedom of expression and religion at all necessary levels of justice, even, if necessary, before the European Court of Human Rights”.
Sadly, it may well come to that. The apparently indefatigable General Prosecutor has now indicated she will appeal two of the charges to the country’s Supreme Court. (The charge based on Ms Räsänen’s radio show appearance will not be appealed, making her Court of Appeal acquittal on that charge final).
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF International), the legal advocacy group that successfully challenged a Brussels-area mayor’s attempt at shutting down the NatCon conference earlier this week in a Belgian court, has been coordinating Ms Räsänen legal support, and will continue to do so.
Commenting on the Supreme Court appeal, ADF International’s Executive Director Paul Coleman said: “This is a watershed case in the story of Europe’s creeping censorship. The state’s insistence on continuing this prosecution after almost five long years, despite such clear and unanimous rulings from the lower courts is alarming. The process is the punishment in such instances, resulting in a chill on free speech for all citizens observing.”
