For the third time in three years, Päivi Räsänen will stand trial in Finland for the “crime” of tweeting a Bible verse. A sitting member of the Finnish parliament, Päivi is being prosecuted for “hate speech” for her 2019 tweet, along with a 2004 church pamphlet she wrote expressing the Christian view of marriage. Her pastor, Bishop Juhana Pohjola, is also being prosecuted for publishing the pamphlet. The pair were unanimously acquitted by the district court in 2022 and the appeals court in 2023. But the Finnish prosecutor has continued to push to censor and sanction them for their free expression, appealing again to Finland’s Supreme Court. |
