Christian Finnish parliamentarian blocked from entering UK to discuss free speech at religious liberty conference
- Päivi Räsänen’s travel authorisation was cancelled in July following her conviction for ‘hate speech’ by the Finnish Supreme Court
- Christian politician was due to speak about free speech at a religious liberty conference in Northern Ireland this week
- Räsänen and ADF call on Home Secretary to urgently intervene to allow Räsänen to enter UK for event
LONDON (18 August 2026) – A Finnish parliamentarian has been blocked from entering the UK to give an address on freedom of speech at a conference this week, following her criminal conviction for “hate speech” by Finland’s Supreme Court.
Longstanding Christian politician Päivi Räsänen, who is a member of the Finnish Parliament’s “Friends of the United Kingdom” group, was due to give a talk in person this week about freedom of speech, at a religious freedom conference.
However, in July, Räsänen was informed that her Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) to the UK had been cancelled, despite her application initially being approved in June.
Räsänen will be forced to speak at the event virtually on Wednesday and Friday, unless she is granted entry to the country. The Finnish MP and ADF are now calling on the UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to make a last-minute intervention, to allow Räsänen to attend in person on Friday.
This follows the Finnish grandmother and former Interior Minister’s “hate speech” conviction by the Finnish Supreme Court in March 2026, for expressing her Christian beliefs on marriage and human sexuality in a 2004 booklet written for her church.
Räsänen’s criminal conviction was noted with concern by observers around the world, including the US State Department and the US Religious Liberty Commission, which was established by President Donald Trump.
Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola, who was criminally convicted alongside Räsänen for publishing her booklet, was also blocked from entering the UK, after his ETA was denied in June.
After her ETA was cancelled, Räsänen subsequently applied for a full visa and wrote to the UK Home Secretary personally to ask that it be granted ahead of the conference this week.
To date, Räsänen has not received an answer from the Home Secretary, and was informed that she would not be given a response on her visa application in time to travel for the event.
Räsänen, Bishop Pohjola and the Luther Foundation Finland, who were all convicted in March over Räsänen’s booklet, have appealed their cases to the European Court of Human Rights, where they will be represented by free speech legal advocacy organisation Alliance Defending Freedom.
Räsänen said: “It is shocking that the UK has blocked me, a democratically elected politician in an allied European state, from entering the country.
“I was convicted of ‘hate speech’ in Finland for peacefully expressing my Christian views. This was an egregious case of state censorship, noted with concern by observers around the world, including the US State Department and the US Religious Liberty Commission.
“Even though this unjust conviction is currently on appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, the UK has likely refused me travel authorisation on this basis. In doing so, the UK is punishing me for exercising my fundamental human rights.
“I call on Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to urgently intervene to allow me to enter the UK to speak at this event. There is still time for this censorship to be reversed.”
Lorcán Price, legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, representing Räsänen, Bishop Pohjola and the Luther Foundation Finland at the European Court of Human Rights, said: “In essence Päivi Räsänen has been blocked from entering the UK for peacefully expressing her Christian beliefs.
“This is not an isolated incident. The UK has in the last year blocked a number of mainstream conservative individuals, politicians, and now even a member of the Finnish Parliament and a Lutheran bishop, from entering the country. This trend is yet another example of the severe and escalating censorship crisis in Great Britain.
“Furthermore, the British state is increasingly cracking down on the rights of Christians in the UK: Christians have been criminalised for silently praying, offering to speak with people, publicly preaching their faith, and now they have been blocked from entering the country for expressing their views.
“Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood should act immediately to allow my client to enter the country, to speak in person at the religious liberty event in Northern Ireland. Any further silence on the Home Secretary’s part will reinforce to the British people and observers around the world that this government has a deep-seated antipathy to free speech.”
Bishop Pohjola said: “It is an Orwellian reality that I was blocked from entering the UK by the British state.
“For a senior Lutheran cleric to be criminally sanctioned in one European country and blocked from entering another, for merely publishing a church booklet which peacefully expressed views the Finnish state disagreed with, is extremely alarming.
“It shows how far our civilisation has strayed not only from its Christian roots, but even from respecting the basic human rights of free speech and religious freedom. The two are undoubtedly related, as a new secular orthodoxy has taken root across Western countries, under which dissenters are punished harshly.
“I sincerely hope the UK Home Secretary acts to allow Paivi to enter the country, and that the European Court of Human Rights upholds our right to free speech. Peacefully expressing views on marriage and human sexuality that Christians have always held is not a crime.”
Background
The former Finnish Interior Minister, medical doctor and grandmother of 12 was criminally prosecuted for nearly seven years for sharing her Christian beliefs about marriage and human sexuality in a 2019 tweet and live radio debate, as well as for authoring a 2004 church booklet, for which she was charged alongside Bishop Pohjola and the Luther Foundation Finland.
In 2021, Räsänen was formally charged with “agitation against a minority group” under a section of the Finnish criminal code titled “war crimes and crimes against humanity”.
Following unanimous acquittals on all charges by two lower courts in 2022 and 2023, the state prosecutor appealed again to the Finnish Supreme Court, regarding the tweet and church booklet.
The case was heard in October 2025, and in March 2026, in a narrow 3–2 decision, the Supreme Court upheld the acquittal for the Bible verse tweet, but convicted Räsänen, Bishop Pohjola and the Luther Foundation Finland for the 2004 booklet. The radio show charge was not appealed to the Supreme Court, so that acquittal stands.
The Supreme Court convicted Räsänen under a law that was introduced years after the booklet was published, and did so despite the court’s admission that the booklet “did not contain incitement to violence or comparable threat-like fomenting of hatred”.
In an alarming display of censorship, the Supreme Court fined Räsänen, Bishop Pohjola, and the Luther Foundation Finland several thousand euros each, and ruled that the condemned statements within the booklet must be “removed from public access and destroyed”.
The US State Department commented on Räsänen’s criminal prosecution, prior to her conviction in March: “In a democracy, no one should face trial for peacefully sharing their beliefs. The case against Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen, which accuses her of hate speech for simply posting a Bible verse, is baseless, as two courts have unanimously found.”
Following her conviction, the U.S. Embassy Finland said: “A troubling ruling for religious freedom and freedom of expression: Finland’s Supreme Court dismissed the charge over MP Päivi Räsänen’s 2019 Bible-verse social-media post, but convicted her over separate passages in a Christian pamphlet and imposed a fine. Whatever one thinks of the underlying views, the imposition of criminal liability for nonviolent religious expression sets a troubling precedent for religious freedom and freedom of expression.”
