On October 30, Finnish parliamentarian Päivi Räsänen and her co-defendant Bishop Juhana Pohjola faced the Supreme Court. Both face charges of ‘hate speech’ under Finland’s criminal code, which falls under the section dealing with “war crimes and crimes against humanity.” A crowd of supporters gathered at the court to greet Räsänen, who has become an international icon of Christian steadfastness in the face of censorship and malicious prosecution.
The charges against Räsänen stem from a tweet citing Romans 1:24-27 in opposition to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland’s support of a Pride event, and a 26-page booklet from 2004, co-authored with Bishop Pohjola, titled Male and Female He Created Them: Homosexual Relationships Challenge the Christian Concept of Humanity. A previous charge regarding comments made by Räsänen during a radio interview were dropped.
In a press conference following the hearing, criminal defence attorney Matti Sankamo noted that the previous prosecutor had been exchanged for another, and that he did not ask a single question throughout the hearing and primarily limited his arguments to abstractions. The prosecutor reiterated the previous claims that Räsänen’s statements had been “insulting” and that her “intent is irrelevant” to how people interpreted her words.
“The process was very different today compared to the district courts and the court of appeal,” Sankamo said. “The prosecutor had changed, and interestingly, this prosecutor argued very differently than previous prosecutors …The prosecutor seemed surprisingly passive for a criminal case. It is very unique that a prosecutor would not ask a single question of the defendants. I think our arguments were presented well to the courts, but it was very different from previous sessions.”
The charges against Räsänen and Bishop Pohjola could incur up to two years imprisonment; the prosecution, however, is asking for Räsänen’s “Bible tweet” and the co-authored booklet to be censored from the internet in addition to a fine of €10,000.
“This day marks a significant day not only in my personal journey but for the fundamental freedoms of every person, especially in Finland and also across Europe,” Räsänen said at the press conference. “More than six years ago, I shared a Bible verse on social media and took part in discussions on faith, marriage, and human identity … for this, I was interrogated for more than thirteen hours by the police and eventually charged with three criminal offences under the section of our law dealing with war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
“It is difficult to overstate how surreal that was,” she continued. “To see my faith, my conscience, and even the Bible itself, placed on trial in a democratic nation—my own country.” She noted that the police, and both lower courts, have all affirmed that she has committed no crime. “My hope and my prayer throughout this process is that Finland would remain a country where everyone, no matter their faith, can freely express their deeply held beliefs without fear of prosecution.”
“Whatever the outcome of this trial is, my conscience is clear, and my faith is firm,” Räsänen emphasized. In a moment of levity, she also shared that during the interrogations, police officers—in a scene reminiscent of the Soviet Union—actually read her Scripture passages and asked her to explain them, leading later to jokes that “Päivi was going to the police station for another Bible study.”
In his post-hearing remarks, Bishop Juhana Pohjola stated that he had affirmed to the court that the views laid out in the booklet he co-authored related to his role as a member of the clergy.
“I am called to publicly teach and defend Christian doctrine and ethics in society based both on the Bible and the natural law,” he said. “I pointed out that the basic teaching of this pamphlet is shared widely across the Christian churches … I pointed out that any possible conviction would not only stigmatize me and the Lutheran Church that I lead as criminals but send dangerous signals to all Christians and Christian denominations.”
