“The fight continues”. This is how Päivi Räsänen, a member of the Parliament of Finland and grandmother of 11, reacted to the news that the Supreme Court will re-open a legal case about freedom of speech she won in two lower courts.

Despite losing in the Helsinki District Court (March 2022) and the Helsinki Court of Appeals (November 2023), the public prosecutors will try to demonstrate again that Päivi Räsänen did indeed violate the Penal Code by insulting gay people in a booklet published in 2004 and social media posts in 2019 with a Bible verse homosexuality.

In the process so far, six judges have unanimously acquitted the former Interior Minister (2011-2015) and member of the Christian Democratic Party, saying her opinions were within the limits of freedom of speech.

On the morning of 19 April 204, Päivi Räsänen reacted to the Supreme Court’s decision to re-open the case by saying that she was “ready” to defend the fundamental freedoms before Finland’s to court and “also before the European Court of Human Rights”.

She described the legal process as “historic”, hoping that a third win would “more strongly secure the freedom of Christians to speak about the Bible’s teachings”. The top court decision might even have an impact on future legislation in Europe.

Korkein oikeus myöntää valitusluvan hovioikeuden vapauttavasta ratkaisusta kirjoituksiini liittyen. Toivottava vapauttava päätös korkeimmasta oikeudesta turvaisi entistä selkeämmin sananvapauden ja kristittyjen vapauden pitää Raamatun opetuksia esillä. Taistelu jatkuu!

— Päivi Räsänen (@PaiviRasanen) April 19, 2024

On social media X, she wrote: “A hopeful acquittal from the Supreme Court would further safeguard freedom of expression and the freedom of Christians to present the teachings of the Bible. The fight continues!”

Global media attention

The case has drawn global media attention and has been followed by Evangelical Focus since 2019 (see full coverage here). This website has published on the ground reports as well as Päivi Räsänen’s personal testimony given during a conference of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance.

Groups like the European Evangelical Alliance have expressed their hopes that freedom of expression in Finland may not be restricted.

Bishop Juhana Pohjola, of the Evangelical Lutheran Missionary Diocese of Finland, is also involved in the legal case, for publishing Räsänen’s booklet on human sexuality, titled “Male and Female He Created Them”.

‘The process is the punishment’

ADF, the organisation supporting the Christian politician’s legal defence, says “the process is the punishment” in a process that is “something akin to a ‘heresy’ trial, where Christians are dragged through court for holding beliefs that differ from the approved orthodoxy of the day”. 

Paul Coleman, who leads ADF, underlined that “Räsänen and Pohjola’s (…) right to speak freely is everyone’s right to speak freely”.