Finland’s supreme court convicts MP Päivi Räsänen of ethnic agitation over anti-LGBTQ+ writings

Finland’s Supreme Court has convicted Christian Democrat MP Päivi Räsänen of inciting hatred against a minority group over her 2004 pamphlet criticising homosexuality, public broadcaster Yle reports. The ruling ends a four-year legal battle spanning three court instances.

The court found Räsänen guilty of ethnic agitation for republishing her pamphlet, Male and Female He Created Them: Homosexual Relationships Challenge the Christian View of Humanity, online. A separate 2019 social media post cited in the charges was dismissed.

Also convicted was Bishop Juhana Pohjola, then-director of the Luther Foundation Finland, which originally published Räsänen’s text on its website. Both defendants had denied wrongdoing, arguing their statements were protected under freedom of religion and speech.

Lower courts—Helsinki District Court in 2022 and the Court of Appeal in 2023—had acquitted Räsänen, ruling that while her writings were “partly offensive to homosexuals,” they did not meet the threshold for criminal hate speech. The Supreme Court’s decision overturns those verdicts.

The prosecution, led by the Prosecutor General, had sought fines for two counts of ethnic agitation, arguing Räsänen’s texts insulted homosexuals based on sexual orientation. The case centred on balancing free expression with protections against discrimination.

Räsänen, a long-serving MP and former interior minister, had framed the trial as a test of religious freedom, warning a conviction could lead to “censorship of the Bible.” The charges did not target biblical quotations themselves.