Finland’s Supreme Court is set to give its final ruling in the high-profile free speech case involving former interior minister and Christian Democrat MP Päivi Räsänen and Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola.
Both have been charged with hate crimes for their expressing Christian views on sexuality and marriage. The final ruling is due tomorrow.
ADF International, the legal counsel of Räsänen and Pohjola, argued the case is “about whether quoting the Bible and standing on its teachings can be criminalised in 21st-century Europe”.
In June 2019, Räsänen posted a tweet directed at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, questioning its decision to endorse a Helsinki Pride event.
She later faced charges over this post, as well as a 24-page pamphlet published by Pohjola, which she wrote in 2004, titled Male and Female He Created Them: Homosexual relationships challenge the Christian concept of humanity, which outlines a Christian view of gender and sexuality.
In her text, she expressed concerns about the social and psychological effects of “normalising same-sex relationships” on children and adolescents.
