Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen is praying that she will finally be exonerated of hate speech charges over her biblical views on marriage and sexuality after the case against her was heard by the Supreme Court on Thursday.
Mrs Räsänen, former Minister of the Interior, was first charged in 2019 over comments she made in a tweet and a pamphlet co-published with Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola, who was also charged.
Despite having at one time been the boss of the Finnish police, she was subjected to a 13-hour interrogation over her beliefs and charged after she refused to delete her tweet and apologize for her comments.
Mrs Räsänen and Bishop Pohjola were both later cleared by the District Court of Helsinki and the Court of Appeal but the state prosecution was not satisfied and appealed to the Finnish Supreme Court, which heard the case on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Mrs Räsänen, 65, said that the case was a “significant moment” not only for them personally but for Finland and other European states more widely.
“Whatever the outcome of this trial is, my conscience is clear and my faith is firm,” she said.
“My hope is that this ruling will affirm the right of every person to express their beliefs freely without fear and without punishment.”
Bishop Pohjola said he told the panel of judges on Thursday that “any possible conviction would not only stigmatise me, and the Lutheran Church body that I lead, as criminals but send a dangerous signal to all Christians and Christian denominations, and such an outcome would not contribute to building a genuinely free society proud of its rule of law.”
Both Mrs Räsänen and Bishop Pohjola are being supported in their case by the Alliance Defending Freedom International (ADF).
Their legal counsel, Matti Sankamo, is hopeful that they will be cleared of all charges by the Supreme Court. It is not certain when the verdict will be issued - possibly by Spring 2026, he said - but when it is handed down it will be final.
ADF executive director, Paul Coleman, said that “the stakes are extremely high”. If the prosecution succeeds, it will “set a new low for freedom of expression in Europe and specifically for Christians”, while also opening the door for the criminalisation of many other people in Finland who have expressed similar views publicly, he said.
Conversely, if the Supreme Court upholds the not guilty verdicts of the lower courts, it will “set a very strong precedent in Finland … and strengthen the legal standard whether [people] agree with Päivi or not”.
If found guilty, Mrs Räsänen and Bishop Pohjola face a fine of 10,000 euros each and the censorship of their comments.
“The heart of this trial is the question: whether teachings related to the Bible can be presented, and whether it is still permissible to agree with the Bible even when it contradicts the main ideology of the society,” she said.
Mrs Räsänen said that although there had been some “dark moments” in the last seven years, she had also experienced a lot of “joy” and the goodness of God, with people even telling her they had started to read the Bible for the first time or come to faith as a result of her legal battle.
Reflecting on her feelings at this stage in her long struggle, she said she felt “very calm and confident”.
“I have felt all the time, from the beginning, that this process has been in God’s hands and I trust that He will bring this to the end, whatever the result will be,” she said.
