Finland’s Supreme Court Acquits Parliamentarian on Bible Tweet, Convicts Her for “Insult” in 20-Year-Old Church Pamphlet on Separate Charge

Police investigations against Päivi Räsänen started in June 2019. As an active member of the Finnish Lutheran church, she addressed the leadership of her church and questioned its official sponsorship of the LGBT event ‘Pride 2019’, accompanied by an image of a Bible text. Over several months, Päivi attended a total of thirteen hours of police interviews about her views. The Finnish Prosecutor General then brought three criminal charges against her at the end of April 2021.

Päivi was accused of having engaged in “hate speech” for publicly voicing her opinion on marriage and human sexuality in a 2004 church pamphlet, for comments made during a 2019 radio debate, and the tweet she directed at her church leadership. Bishop Pohjola, the Chairman of the International Lutheran Council, was charged for having published the church pamphlet that Päivi authored. The prosecution dropped the charge regarding the radio debate in its appeal to the Supreme Court.

ADF International has coordinated Päivi’s legal defense as she faced the courts to fight for everyone’s right to freely share their beliefs. In a unanimous ruling on 14 November 2023, the Helsinki Court of Appeal acquitted Päivi and the bishop of the “hate speech” charges that the state prosecutor had levelled against them. The decision confirmed the District Court’s March 2022 acquittal. 

After the prosecutor appealed for a second time, the Supreme Court, which heard the case in October 2025,  ruled on two of the three original charges: concerning the tweet and the church booklet. 

Court aknowledged her text contained no incitement to hate or violence

The Court found Räsänen and the Bishop guilty 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”. It held that: “it must be taken into account that the text forming the basis for the conviction did not contain incitement to violence or comparable threat-like fomenting of hatred. The conduct is therefore not particularly serious in terms of the nature of the offense”.

The pamphlet was authored by Räsänen in 2004. The Court convicted her on the basis that: “after a preliminary investigation into the matter was launched in 2019, Räsänen continued to share the article on her own internet and social media pages in 2019 and 2020”.

“I am taking legal advice on a possible appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. This is not about my free speech alone, but that of every person in Finland. A positive ruling would help to prevent other innocent people from experiencing the same ordeal for simply sharing their beliefs,” said Päivi after the ruling. 

With regard to the 2019 Bible verse tweet in which Räsänen questioned her church leadership’s decision to sponsor a Pride event, the Court unanimously held that it did not meet the criteria for the offence of incitement as she “justified her opinion by citing a biblical text” among other things.

Fines and censorship

The Supreme Court has imposed criminal fines of several thousands of Euros and ruled that the impugned statements must be “removed from public access and destroyed.”  

Päivi Räsänen has served as a member of the Finnish Parliament since 1995, and was Minister of the Interior from 2011-2015. She is a medical doctor, mother of five children, and has twelve grandchildren.

“Freedom of speech is a cornerstone of democracy. It is right that the Court has acquitted Päivi Räsänen for her 2019 Bible verse tweet. However, the conviction for a simple church pamphlet published decades ago – before the law under which she has been convicted was even passed – is an outrageous example of state censorship. This decision will create a severe chilling effect for everyone’s right to speak freely,” stated Paul Coleman, Executive Director of ADF International and author of “Censored“.