Finnish deputy Päivi Räsänen, from the Christian Democratic Party, was convicted this week by the Supreme Court of Finland for “incitement of hatred against a group” in a case in which she was being tried after re-publishing a religious pamphlet on the internet in which she defended marriage between a man and a woman and stated that homosexuality would be a “disorder of psychosexual development”.
The decision that convicted the deputy, who is Christian and a member of the Lutheran Church, was based on Finnish legislation that criminalizes statements considered offensive against groups based, among other factors, on sexual orientation.
The conviction was taken by a majority of 3 votes to 2 and resulted in a fine equivalent to around 1,800 euros (R$ 10,800, at the most recent rate). According to the Supreme Court, the deputy’s “crime” did not occur due to the original publication of the text, written by her in 2004 for use in church religious material, but due to the republication of the content on the website of the Lutheran Foundation of Finland and on the parliamentarian’s own social media pages in 2019 and 2020, already under current legislation that criminalizes incitement against groups.
In its decision, the Court stated that the pamphlet presented the “Christian view on family and sexuality” and included statements that, according to the current understanding of Finnish law, could be considered “offensive against homosexuals as a group”.
In the same trial, the Supreme Court unanimously acquitted Räsänen of another charge related to another publication she made in 2019 on her social networks, in which the deputy cited a verse from the Bible to criticize the Lutheran Church’s decision to express support for Helsinki’s LGBT pride week. The judges understood that, in this case, the demonstration fell within the limits of freedom of expression in Finland.
The parliamentarian stated that she received the decision with surprise and said that she is considering appealing to the European Court of Human Rights. In a statement released by the legal organization ADF International – which works to defend freedom of religion and expression and which accompanies Räsänen’s defense – the parliamentarian stated that the case involves not only her personal situation, but the right to express religious convictions in public in Finland.
ADF International criticized the decision and stated that condemning a citizen for an ancient religious text could have a negative effect on freedom of expression in Europe. According to the entity, the parliamentarian had previously been acquitted in the same case by lower courts, but the prosecution appealed, taking the case to the Supreme Court, which now decided to convict her.
The sentence against Räsänen provoked a political reaction in Finland. According to the local press, members of the Party of Finns and the Christian Democratic Party itself criticized the result and defended changes to the law on incitement against groups, claiming that the current rule is imprecise and could limit freedom of expression.
The process began in 2019 after a complaint involving three statements by the deputy: the pamphlet written in 2004, the publication on social media in 2019 and participation in a radio debate in the same year. The lower courts had in fact acquitted Räsänen of all charges, but the Finnish Public Prosecutor’s Office appealed, which led the Supreme Court to reevaluate the case and convict the parliamentarian on one of the charges.
