After a seven-year legal battle, the infamous “Bible tweet” prosecution of Finnish parliamentarian Päivi Räsänen concluded with a mixed verdict from the Supreme Court on Thursday. The court unanimously acquitted the former minister of the interior for her 2019 tweet quoting Scripture but convicted Räsänen for “hate speech” under the “war crimes and crimes against humanity” section of the Finnish criminal code for a 2004 booklet she co-authored for her church with Bishop Juhana Pohjola, who was also found guilty.
Räsänen has been ordered to pay a fine of €1,800; the bishop has been fined €1,100, and the foundation that published the booklet has been fined €5,000. Räsänen was previously acquitted unanimously by two lower courts on all charges.
In the 3-2 split decision, the Court stated that although the booklet did not incite hatred or violence and was “not particularly serious,” the accused were nonetheless criminally liable for having “made available to the public and kept available to the public opinions that insult homosexuals as a group on the basis of their sexual orientation.” In a stunning move of book-burning-style censorship, the Court ordered that the booklet—which was parsed line by line—be “removed from public access and destroyed.”
“I am shocked and profoundly disappointed that the court has failed to recognize my basic human right to freedom of expression,” Räsänen said in response to the verdict. “I stand by the teachings of the Christian faith and will continue to defend my and every person’s right to share their convictions in the public square. I am taking legal advice on a possible appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.”
The Court’s chaotic verdict is inconsistent and appears to be an attempt to rescue a seven-year prosecution that has been consistently rejected by both lower courts and by the police, who concluded that the booklet broke no laws. The Court ruled that the 2019 tweet was legal because Räsänen had “justified her opinion by citing a biblical text,” but convicted her for the 22-year-old booklet, authored more than a decade before gay marriage was even legalized in Finland, defending the biblical view of sexuality.
As Räsänen noted at a press conference on Thursday, the Court has drawn a “dangerous line” for freedom of speech—but nobody knows precisely where that line is. “The resources devoted to this process and the message it sends should concern anyone who values a free society,” Räsänen said. “When I began my political career over thirty years ago, I never imagined that I would one day stand before you as a defendant in a criminal case for expressing beliefs inspired by the teaching of … my faith, and yet, here we are.”
Matti Sankamo, Räsänen’s lawyer, observed that the case could have dire consequences for all published materials, as “any booklet or pamphlet or writing, within twenty years ago, could become illegal in Finland … unfortunately, the majority opinion was such that they were willing to take the risk, and it will have an impact in Finland when it comes to publishing older material.” Again, the precedent being set by the Supreme Court is unclear in both premises and implications.
