The Last Trial of Päivi Räsänen

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.”