Räsänen tries to set a legal precedent at the appeal's court

Räsänen wrote in a press release on Tuesday that an acquittal of the higher courts has a “broader significance” than the one she has already from the Helsinki District Court. In March, the court decided that she was not guilty of the three charges against her.

The Christian Member of Parliament was accused of insulting homosexuals by expressing her vision of marriage as the relation of a man and a woman and the only place for sexuality. She also reminded the Finnish Lutheran Church in a tweet that this is still the official teaching and that support for a gay pride event is not logical.

The Finnish state prosecutor thought this discriminatory against homosexuals and decided to prosecute the MP. In the accusations, the prosecution did not only refer to the tweet from 2019, but also to a radio program in the same year and a small booklet from 2004. A Lutheran Foundation published that booklet, and the leading bishop of that foundation, Mr Juhana Pohjola, was also accused.

After two days in the courtroom in January and February, Mrs Räsänen was freed of all charges in March.

Decision is misinterpretation

The prosecutors, however, thought that a higher court decision would be helpful for “similar cases” to come. For them, there is “reason to doubt the correctness of the outcome of the District Court’s decision”, the prosecutors write to the Helsinki Court of Appeal. The judges set the “threshold for punishable hate speech overly high” and “misinterpreted the offensive element”.

According to the prosecutors, the court “did not fully perceive and understand their degrading and dehumanising (discriminatory) meaning for homosexuals” and came to the “wrong conclusion”.

The case has international and historical elements in it, the document says. “History bears witness to the systematic persecution of homosexuals, in addition to Jews, by Nazi Germany”, the prosecutors say. The denigration of homosexuals “and the denial of their equality and rights” is still “part of the agenda of political extremists” internationally. “As is well known, such trends are clearly visible in Europe. Hence, for this reason, any form of denigration of homosexuals must be treated harshly, and the threshold for criminalisation should not be set too high.”

Legal guide for future

According to her press release, Mrs Räsänen hopes that the Court of Appeal will confirm the decision by the District Court. “This would then serve as a legal guide regarding any similar charges in the future”, she writes. “I firmly hope no one else will be subject to similar accusations in the years to come.”

The MP says the insulting intention is “placed into my mouth” by the prosecution, who interpreted her expressions completely false. “Throughout this whole process, what has been most distressing is the prosecution’s false testimony about my statements.”

Basically, Räsänen sees that the prosecution “does not accept the biblical view of man that the doctrine of sin does not diminish the dignity of man. Every human being is equally valuable, but also sinful and in need of Jesus’ grace. The prosecutor is on a crusade against the classical teachings of the Christian faith, but at the same time, this opens up, once again, an opportunity to bring the message of the Gospel into the courtroom”, the MP concludes.