The case of Päivi Räsänen, the Finnish doctor and Member of Parliament convicted of “incitement to hatred” against homosexuals in a long-running legal battle over freedom of expression and religion, has consequences beyond her own country.

The UK has blocked her entry into its territory by refusing her an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), after it had initially been granted to her. This authorisation is required to pass through any security checks at a country’s airports when the traveller does not hold a visa. Her husband, however, was permitted entry into the UK.

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In fact, the evangelical politician was only due to pass through London to catch a connecting flight back home to Finland.

The 66-year-old former Finnish Minister of the Interior has explained to the Finnish media that, when asked on her application to enter British territory about any criminal convictions in the last 12 months, she described the sentence handed down in March by the Finnish Supreme Court in a controversial case in which she was ultimately fined 20 days’ pay.

In a legal case that has dragged on for seven years, Räsänen had twice won in lower courts, but the public prosecutor’s office appealed both times and secured the conviction at the Supreme Court, although she was acquitted of a charge relating to a post containing a Bible verse, which was ultimately not deemed punishable.

The ETA traveller system stipulates that entry to a country should be denied where crimes of a certain gravity have been committed. Räsänen told the Finnish newspaper Ilta Sanomat that it came as a “shock” to learn she would be treated as a criminal by the United Kingdom. “It hadn’t occurred to me that the verdict would have consequences of this kind”.

Invited to speak in Belfast

This August, Päivi Räsänen was invited to speak at a conference on freedom of expression and religion at the Northern Ireland Assembly. She was also due to take part in another event in Belfast organised by a Christian organisation.

The parliamentarian, who has served for more than three decades, has many ties to the United Kingdom. “I am a member of the Finland-United Kingdom friendship group”, she explained to Christian Daily International.

“I have visited the United Kingdom on several occasions in my roles as a Member of Parliament and as Minister of the Interior”, she says. “The UK remains a potential destination for my future parliamentary work, and I would therefore hope to be able to travel there over the coming year as well”.

According to CDI, Päivi Räsänen has written to the UK Home Office and appealed in a letter to the United Kingdom’s Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood.

Throughout these years of legal proceedings, Päivi Räsänen has received support from organisations such as the European Evangelical Alliance and legal advice from the Christian advocacy organisation Alliance Defending Freedom, amongst many others.

Evangelical Focus has reported regularly on Päivi Räsänen’s case since it came to light in 2019.